UC-NRLF 


35    flED 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

DAVIS 


tITSS 
K  STORE 


God's  Children 

A 

Modern  Allegory 


BY 

JAMES  ALLMAN 


7906 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &>  COMPANY 
MCMIII 


LIBRARY 


Copyright,  1901,  by 
JAMES  AIRMAN 


First  edition  published  April  25, 


TYPOGRAPHY  BY 

MARSH,   AITKEN  &  CURTIS  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  IN  WHICH  I  INTRODUCE  MY  GOD     .     5 
II.  GOD  SENDS  MERCURY  TO  INVESTIGATE 

THE  CONDITION  OF  His  CHILDREN  14 

III.  MERCURY  BEGINS  TO  INVESTIGATE  THE 

CONDITION  OF  GOD'S  CHILDREN  AND 
MEETS  WITH  STRANGE  EXPERIENCES  22 

IV.  MERCURY    CONTINUES    His     INQUIRY 

INTO  THE  CONDITION  OF  GOD'S 
CHILDREN  AND  MEETS  WITH  MORE 
SURPRISES  .  .  .'  V  •-.,*  .  .  .36 

V.  MERCURY  IN  WHITECHAPEL  ....  46 

VI.  WHAT  THE  SOCIALIST  SAID  .     .     .     .63 

VII.  A  POLITICAL  ECONOMIST  HAS  No  SOUL  86 

VIII.  THE  WRATH  OF  GOD  .  106 


God's  Children 

-H- 
CHAPTER  I 

IN   WHICH   I   INTRODUCE   MY   GOD 

I  think  I  wrote  and  spoke  to  you  about  my  definition 
of  God,  which  I  would  now  give  in  answer  to  the 
question,  What  is  God?  God  is  that  All,  that  infinite  All 
of  which  I  am  conscious  of  being  a  part,  and  therefore 
all  in  me  is  encompassed  by  God,  and  I  feel  him  in 
everything. — Thoughts  on  God:  LEO  TOLSTOI. 

Having  selected  "God's  Children"  as 
the  title  of  this  allegory,  I  find  myself 
urged  in  consequence  to  a  very  curious 
quest.  I  am  in  search  of  a  god.  I  must 
have  one  to  be  a  father  to  the  children. 
My  position  is  awkward.  Probably  you 
have  heard  of  Ponce  de  Leon  in  search 
of  the  fountain  of,eternal  youth,  or  Jason 
in  search  of  the  golden  fleece,  but  I 
have  no  doubt  this  is  the  first  time  you 
have  ever  met  a  man  in  search  of  a  god. 
There  are  plenty  to  select  from,  it  is  true, 
in  fact  the  supply  of  divinities  is  much  in 

5 


God '  s  Children 


excess  of  the  demand,  and  the  religious 
market  is  simply  glutted  with  gods. 

There  is  the  Jehovah  of  Judaism,  the 
Christ  of  Christianity,  the  Zeus  or  Jupiter 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  the  Vishnu  and 
Brahma  of  India,  not  to  mention  Apollo, 
Mars,  and  Venus  (the  young  lady  will 
excuse  me  I  hope  for  not  giving  her 
precedence)  and  the  little  pantsless,  grace- 
less god  of  love,  Cupid.  Besides  these 
there  are  the  thousand  and  one  gods  and 
goddesses  of  India,  Siam,  Burmah,  and 
China,  with  their  grotesque  and  funny 
faces,  and  their  many  heads  and  arms. 

I  have  sampled  these  goods,— I  beg 
their  pardons  I  mean  gods, — and  find 
them  not  to  my  liking. 

There  is  that  sombre,  harsh  and  erratic 
deity  which  Christianity  has  inherited 
from  its  parent  creed  Judaism.  A 
divinity  who  could  not  make  manifest 
unto  men  such  simple  and  self-evident 
rules  of  conduct  as,  Thou  shalt  not  kill, 
thou  shalt  not  steal  and  thou  shalt  not 
commit  adultery,  without  creating  an 


In  Which  I  Introduce  My  God         7 

unpleasant  atmospheric  disturbance  and 
compelling  an  extremely  aged  Jew  called 
Moses  to  stay  for  three  days  and  three 
nights  on  the  top  of  a  very  high  mountain 
without  food  or  protection  from  the 
inclemencies  of  the  weather.  A  God  who 
foolishly  came  down  unto  this  particular 
planet  called  the  Earth  and  allowed  its 
denizens  who  are  themselves  but  the 
creation  of  his  will  and  alive  by  his 
sufferance,  to  put  him  to  death.  This 
God  will  not  suit  my  purpose,  I  do  not 
like  him  and  will  not  have  him. 

I  next  turn  to  the  principal  god  of  the 
religions  that  were  accepted  by  civiliza- 
tion prior  to  Christianity — him  who  was 
known  to  the  Greeks  as  Zeus  and  to  the 
Latins  as  Jupiter,  and  I  must  say. I  prefer 
him  to  the  Christian  God  because  he  was 
such  a  jolly  good  fellow.  He  was  so  like 
to  erring  mortals  that  I  like  him  all  the 
more  for  it.  When  he  came  on  earth  it 
was  not  to  die  for  men;  Jupiter  knew  too 
much  for  that,  he  came  down  to  have 
a  good  time.  He  enjoyed  himself 


8  God\s  Children 

immensely  with  such  young  ladies  as 
Leda  and  Europa  in  a  manner  that  would 
furnish  a  splendid  theme  for  a  modern 
farce  or  a  realistic  novel,  and  when  he 
returned  to  Olympus,  Juno,  his  wife, 
tendered  him  very  much  the  same  recep- 
tion as  an  earthly 'spouse  would  give  to 
an  erring  husband.  I  turn  with  sorrow 
from  this  humane  and  jovial  divinity 
because  I  cannot  accept  him  on  account 
of  the  shockingly  low  standard  of  his 
morals. 

Shelley  in  his  notes  to  Queen  Mab 
says: — "God  is  an  hypothesis,"  and  if  God 
be  merely  an  imagination  I  do  not  see 
why  I  should  not  be  entitled  to  imagine 
my  own  god  if  I  am  too  fastidious  about 
my  divinities  to  accept  the  crude  concep- 
tions of  others.  I  shall  therefore  proceed 
to  imagine  my  own  god  as  follows: — 

God  is  kind,  benign  and  beautiful; 
urbane  in  manner,  almighty  in  will,  but 
merciful  in  disposition.  Eternal,  never 
born  and  never  dying,  he  existed  from 
ages  which  had  no  beginning;  alone  in 


In  Which  I  Introduce  My  God         9 

terrible  and  majestic  solitude,  until  he 
became  weary  of  his  loneliness  (I  cannot 
imagine  a  god  who  has  not  certain  human 
attributes  —  it  is  beyond  man's  mental 
power  to  do  so)  and  in  order  to  relieve 
himself  of  his  fit  of  divine  ennui  he 
created  certain  semi-divine  beings  as 
attendants  and  companions,  and  put 
them  in  a  place  called  heaven.  These 
companions  amused  him  for  a  time,  but 
again  he  became  weary  and  he  tired  of 
them  and  their  company  and  it  occurred 
to  his  divine  mind  that  it  would  be  very 
amusing  to  construct  some  sort  of  a  toy 
or  contrivance  to  please  himself  with  and 
he  made  the  universe.  He  brought  into 
existence  a  number  of  ever  revolving  and^ 
moving  bodies  of  substance,  and  he  kept 
them  in  form  and  place  and  proper  circuit 
by  means  of  force  or  energy.  This  grand 
far-reaching  cosmos  of  matter  and  motion 
continually  counterbalancing  each  on  the 
other,  this  beautiful  aggregation  of  bril- 
liant suns  with  their  many  hued  attend- 
ant planets  circling  around  'them,  these 


io  God's  Children 

strange,  gorgeous,  and  erratically  moving 
comets  all  extending  into  the  farthest 
limits  of  space,  myriads  and  myriads  of 
miles  in  length  and  breadth  and  height,  is 
spoken  of  in  awesome  reverence  by 
mortals  as  the  universe.  In  heaven, 
though,  they  do  not  consider  this  universe 
so  seriously.  Its  many  revolutions  and 
changes  and  phases  amuse  God  and  his 
angels  even  as  the  revolving  of  a  top  or 
the  changing  of  forms  and  colors  in  a 
kaleidoscope  will  please  a  child.  The 
universe  is  God's  plaything. 

God  studied  and  watched  this  universe, 
his  toy,  in  its  entirety  and  fullness  and 
vastness.  It  pleased  him  to  perceive  its 
many  forms  and  motions.  He  considered 
it  in  its  details  and  peered  into  its 
smallest  aspect,  and  laughed  to  see  how 
many  millions  of  minute  forms  of  animal 
life  one  small  drop  of  water  could  contain 
and  then  he  became  tired  of  his  toy  and 
neglected  it  again  for  a  very  long  period. 

After  a  very  long  time  had  elapsed  he 
suddenly  thought  of  it  again  and  in  a 


In  Which  I  Introduce  My  God       1 1 

passing  whim  of  divine  humor,  for  God 
appreciates  humor,  it  occurred  to  him 
that  it  would  be  a  very  interesting  experi- 
ment if  he  should  take  an  infinitesimal 
fraction  or  atom  of  his  mens  divinior,  his 
divine  soul  and  essence,  and  instill  it  into 
the  brains  of  certain  beings  on  the  differ- 
ent planets  and  thus  endow  them  with 
reason  just  to  find  out  what  ridiculous 
uses  they  would  make  of  it. 

He  passed  through  the  universe  rapidly, 
for  it  does  not  take  God  long  to  do  so, 
and  he  placed  a  very  small  amount  of  the 
mens  divinior  in  one  distinct  species  of 
animal  inhabiting  each  planet. 

In  due  time  he  reached  the  earth  and 
for  a  while  he  hesitated  among  the 
different  living  beings  upon  its  surface, 
wondering  upon  which  he  should  bestow 
his  great  gift  of  reason.  He  thought  at 
first  of  the  graceful  gazelle,  swift-footed 
and  slender,  careering  at  lightning  speed 
over  the  boundless  wilds  of  South  Africa. 
He  thought  of  the  powerful,  majestic  lion 
with  his  tawny-crested  calm-faced  head 


12  God's  Children 

upreared,  and  shoulders  flowing  with  a 
mane  of  tangled  locks. 

But  it  so  happened,  just  as  he  was  about 
to  bestow  this  great  gift  upon  some  noble 
beast  or  beautiful  bird,  that  God  caught 
sight  of  a  man.  God  laughed  pityingly 
and  exclaimed: 

"Poor  misshapen  beast,  how  extremely 
hideous  you  appear.  Surely  I  must  have 
been  very  careless  when  I  made  you,  for 
your  limbs  are  not  of  uniform  length  like 
those  of  the  more  graceful  monkey  or 
most  of  the  other  animals,  and  the  hair 
upon  your  body  appears  only  in  patches, 
while  in  other  places  you  are  so  comically 
bald;  you  are  slow  and  shambling  of 
movement,  and  I  am  sure  you  cannot  run 
,away  from  fleeter  beasts  of  prey,  and 
when  caught  by  them  you  must  be  very 
defenseless  for  you  have  not  long  keen 
horns,  neither  have  you  teeth  nor  claws, 
therefore,  poor  misshapen  man,  to  you 
will  I  give  the  gift  of  reason,  in  order 
that  you  may  be  able  through  the  intelli- 
gence of  your  mind  to  fashion  artificial 


In  Which  I  Introduce  My  God       13 

clothing  for  that  body  which  I  have 
neglected  to  clothe  properly,  and  that 
you  may  be  able  to  make  for  yourself  out 
of  stone  or  iron  sharp  and  heavy  weapons 
to  supply  the  place  of  teeth  and  claws, 
and  in  order  that  you  may  build  houses 
and  go  into  them  when  the  night  is  dark 
and  thus  be  safe  from  the  other  more 
powerful  beasts.  Unto  you,  man,  do  I 
give  that  essence  divine  called  mind  and 
adopt  you  from  among  all  the  beasts  of 
the  earth  to  be  God's  Children." 


CHAPTER  II 

GOD    SENDS    MERCURY    TO    INVESTIGATE   THE 
CONDITION    OF   HIS   CHILDREN 

A  station  like  the  herald  Mercury. — Hamlet:  SHAKE- 
SPEARE. 

After  God  had  selected  men  to  be  his 
children,  he  passed  away  through  the 
universe  visiting  other  planets,  and  even- 
tually having  completed  his  work  returned 
to  heaven,  and  from  thence  for  a  short 
time  he  amused  himself  studying  his 
children  on  the  different  planets,  some- 
times thinking  of  them  on  one  and  some- 
times on  another,  but  he  forgot  or 
neglected  the  earth. 

After  a  short  time  God  wearied  of  this 
diversion  also  and  he  lazily  ignored  the 
doings  of  his  children,  except  occasionally 
when  he  would  become  casually  desirous 
about  them,  and  then  having  found  then* 
too  uninteresting  for  his  immediate 
divine  attention  he  would  call  for  his 
14 


God  Sends  Mercury  to  Investigate     1 5 

heavenly  messenger  and  send  him  on  to 
investigate  them.  The  name  of  this 
heavenly  messenger  is  unknown  to  me 
for  he  is  semi-divine  and  I  am  merely 
mortal,  but  as  I  shall  be  compelled  often 
to  refer  to  him  I  shall  call  him  Mercury, 
the  name  by  which  heaven's  messenger 
was  known  to  the  ancients. 

God  was  reclining  gracefully  and  care- 
lessly upon  a  couch  of  opalescent-colored 
clouds  when  he  suddenly  thought  he 
would  like  to  be  amused  and  he  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  his  toy,  the  universe.  He 
thought  of  his  children  who  inhabited 
many  of  its  different  planets.  His  eyes 
wandered  over  many  of  them  and  at 
length  by  chance  rested  upon  the  earth. 
This  was  merely  an  accident. 

God  lifted  his  voice  and  he  called  aloud 
for  the  heavenly  messenger,  Mercury. 
He  did  not  exclaim  aloud,  majestically, 
"Come  thou  hither,  oh,  my  fleet  and  obedi- 
ent messenger!"  Only  the  pompous  over- 
bearing divinities,  imagined  by  foolish 
mortals,  talk  that  way.  Earthly  kings 


1 6  God 's  Children 

sometimes  speak  that  way  too,  anc 
imagine  it  is  dignified  and  majestic 
Majesty  is  simply  the  quintessence  oi 
ridiculous  self-conceit.  God  is  unassum- 
ing and  plain  in  manner,  simple  anc 
direct  in  talk.  He  simply  said,  "Mercury 
come  here." 

And  Mercury,  like  all  the  other  beings 
in  heaven,  did  not  approach  in  fear  and 
dread  as  God's  attendants  are  usually 
supposed  to,  he  did  not  prostrate  himseli 
at  God's  feet  and  humbly  implore  his  will 
for  God,  not  being  of  a  despotic  disposi 
tion  does  not  wish  his  attendants  to  be 
servile  and  cringing.  Mercury  simpl} 
walked  up  to  God  and  looking  hirr 
frankly  in  the  face  remarked  in  uncon 
cerned  but  still  respectful  manner 
"Well,  God,  what  do  you  want  with  me?' 

God  replied,  "Well,  Mercury,  I  feel  ] 
would  like  to  amuse  myself  with  the 
doings  of  my  children.  Go  down  to  one 
of  those  planets"  —  here  God's  gaze 
wandered  over  the  universe  and  by  the 
merest  chance  rested  upon  the  earth, — "gc 


God  Sends  Mercury  to  Investigate     1 7 

to  that  far-away  dim-looking  planet  and 
tell  me  when  you  return  how  my  children 
are  progressing." 

Mercury  hurried  away  very  happy,  for 
these  commissions  usually  meant  to  him 
very  pleasant  and  happy  vacations. 
Before  going,  however,  he  did  what  an 
earthly  tourist  does  when  he  starts  out 
upon  a  journey.  The  tourist  usually 
gathers  information  about  the  land  where 
he  is  going  to  visit  and  oftentimes  carries 
that  information  with  him  in  the  form  of 
a  guide-book.  In  the  same  manner  Mer- 
cury hurried  away  to  seek  some  informa- 
tion about  the  place  he  was  going  to  visit, 
and  in  order  to  obtain  it  he  sought  the 
office  of  the  recording  angel. 

This  heavenly  official  is  supposed  to 
keep  a  classified  record  of  the  universe, 
its  manifestations  and  movements,  and  of 
the  children  of  God  who  inhabit  it  and 
their  habits,  their  works,  inclinations, 
governments,  etc., — but  he  does  not. 
Like  many  a  mortal  official  he  has  turned 
his  position  into  a  sinecure,  he  has 


1 8  God 's  Children 

neglected  the  book  of  records,  and  God, 
being  a  kindly  and  indulgent  master, 
does  not  bother  much  about  what  the 
recording  angel  does,  or  rather  does  not. 

When  Mercury  entered  the  office  of 
this  official  the  recording  angel  was  in  a 
deep  slumber.  He  awoke  and  inquired, 
yawningly,  and  with  that  disturbed  and 
petulant  air  peculiar  to  all  officials,  when 
expected  to  perform  the  functions  of 
their  office,  what  Mercury  wanted. 

Mercury  replied  in  a  good  humored 
manner:  "Well,  my  friend,  I  have  been  or- 
dered by  God  to  investigate  the  condition 
of  his  children  on  the  earth,  and  I  thought 
I  would  come  to  you  before  I  started  out 
in  order  to  get  some  information." 

The  recording  angel  quickly  recovered 
his  equanimity — for  the  heavenly  people 
are  polite  to  each  other — and  remarked: 
"I  fear,  Mercury,  that  you  are  going  to 
a  very  unpleasant  place.  That  Earth  is 
one  of  the  most  peculiar  and  puzzling  of 
all  the  planets;  in  fact  it  seems  to  me 
there  is  something  very  wrong  there." 


God  Sends  Mercury  to  Investigate     19 

This  said,  the  recording  angel  began  to 
search  among  the  books  of  record 
exclaiming  dreamily:  "The  earth,  the 
earth,  where  did  I  leave  the  volume  in 
which  it  is  described.  I  fear  it  is  lost. 
Oh  yes,  here  it  is!" 

He  pulled  down  from  his  shelves  a 
very  dusty-looking  volume,  and  twitching 
one  of  his  wings  around  he  cleared  the 
many  cobwebs  off  the  book. 

"God's  children  on  the  earth,"  he  said, 
"have  a  strange  habit  of  congregating 
closely,  and  I  should  think  unhealthily, 
together  in  large  aggregations  which 
they  call  cities,  and  I  think  if  you  are 
sent  to  inquire  into  their  institutions  and 
manners  you  had  better  seek  the  largest 
of  these  cities.  I  think  it  is  called 
Nineveh  or  Babylon.  No,  that  was  some 
time  ago,  they  have  drifted  farther  west- 
ward now.  I  think,"  he  said,  turning  over 
another  page,  "it  is  Rome.  No,  that  is 
not  it;  I  made  another  entry  only  recently, 
I  think — yes — here  it  is,  London.  You 
will  find  this  to  be  the  largest  city  to-day 


2O  God's  Children 

on  the  earth.  It  is  situated  upon  a 
small  island  called  England,  and  you  had 
better  go  to  that  city,  for  there  you  will 
find  concentrated  all  the  enterprises, 
hopes  and  ambitions  of  God's  Children 
centered  in  one  great  focus,  and  you  will 
thus  be  saved  the  trouble  of  much  trav- 
eling and  long  investigation." 

"England,  the  country  in  which  this 
city  is  situated,  is  a  small  island  on  the 
northeast  corner  of  a  large  sheet  of 
water  called  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  on 
the  northwest  corner  of  a  large  conti- 
nent of  land." 

"Very  well,"  exclaimed  Mercury,  "that 
is  all  I  wish  to  know,"  and  he  hurried 
away. 

The  recording  angel  sauntered  back 
into  his  office  and  resumed  his  slumber. 

Mercury  went  rapidly  to  the  golden 
gates  of  heaven  and  passed  without  them. 
For  one  moment  he  poised  himself  and 
then  spreading  his  wings  began  to  pass 
through  space  with  a  rapidity  that 
exceeds  mortal  ken. 


God  Sends  Mercury  to  Investigate     21 

Solar  systems  and  planets  rushed 
past  him,  and  in  a  few  seconds  the 
earth  became  larger  and  nearer.  Its  con- 
tinents and  oceans  spread  before  him. 
He  directed  his  course  toward  the  point 
described  and  arrived  in  the  center  of 
London  at  Charing  Cross. 


CHAPTER  III 

MERCURY   BEGINS   TO   INVESTIGATE  THE  CON- 
•,      DITION  OF  GOD'S  CHILDREN   AND   MEETS 
WITH  STRANGE    EXPERIENCES 

If  we  could  conceive  a  visitor  from  another  planet 
coming  among  us  and  being  set  down  in  the  midst  of 
our  western  civilization  at  the  present  day  there  is  one 
feature  of  our  life,  which  we  might  imagine  could  not 
fail  to  excite  his  interest  and  curiosity.  .  .  .  He 
would  notice  at  every  turn  in  our  cities  great  buildings — 
churches,  temples,  cathedrals — and  he  would  have  seen 
also  that  wherever  men  lived  together  in  small  groups 
they  erected  these  buildings.  .  .  .  If  at  this  stage  he 
were  to  ask  his  guide  for  some  explanation  of  these 
phenomena  he  would  not  improbably  begin  to  feel  some- 
what puzzled. 

—Social  Evolution,  Chap.  IV:  BENJAMIN  KIDD. 

When  Mercury  arrived  in  Charing 
Cross,  which  is  in  the  center  of  London, 
he  hovered  for  a  time  above  in  spiritual 
form  invisible  to  mortal  eyes.  But  it 
soon  occurred  to  him  that  he  had  better 
take  tangible  shape,  assume  mortal  form, 
if  he  would  discover  anything  about 

22 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        23 

God's  Children,  and  accordingly  he 
looked  around  him  and  observed  the 
different  people  who  were  passing.  Just 
at  that  moment  an  exquisite  dandy,  fresh 
from  a  morning  call,  passed  by  and 
Mercury  resolved  to  assume  his  form,  cut 
of  clothing  and  other  very  necessary 
appurtenances,  such  as  cigar,  eye-glass 
and  gold-headed  cane.  He  quickly  threw 
away  the  cigar,  for  the  dandy  who  had 
been  smoking  the  similar  one  did  not 
have  a  very  fastidious  perception  of  the 
gentle  flavor  of  the  weed,  he  being  one  of 
those  who  smoke  only  for  appearance 
and  not  from  a  sense  of  enjoyment,  and 
hence  his  cigar  had  a  vile  flavor.  The 
eye-glass  Mercury  rapidly  dropped  from 
his  face  for  although  he  had  assumed  the 
external  appearance  of  a  dude  it  was 
beyond  his  patience  and  endurance  to 
perform  the  most  laborious  and  painful 
function  of  that  genus. 

He  walked  westward  from  Charing 
Cross  and  passing  through  Trafalgar 
Square  he  admired  the  statues,  fountains 


24  God's  Children 

and  buildings  and  he  became  very  well 
impressed  with  the  residences  of  God's 
Children  and  the  buildings  in  their  city. 
He  looked  at  the  people  who  were 
passing  and  remarked  to  himself: 

"Well,  they  appear  to  be  clean  and 
comfortable  although  their  faces  are  not 
very  intelligent  and  their  clothing  appears 
to  be  of  very  strange  shape  and  of  very 
dull  colors."  The  tall  silk  hats,  the 
straight  black  garments  of  the  men,  for 
there  were  few  women  abroad  at  that 
early  hour  on  Sunday  morning  in  Pall 
Mall,  did  not  appear  to  Mercury  to  be 
very  beautiful. 

Suddenly  he  saw  something  which 
caused  him  to  hold  his  breath  in  astonish- 
ment. It  was  a  lady  —  nay  something 
more  important  than  that,  a  lady's  maid 
— aye  it  was  even  worse  still,  a  spring  hat 
plus  a  lady's  maid.  Mercury  felt  himself 
compelled  to  admit  that  if  the  men  wore 
only  dark  and  sombre  hues  the  women 
made  ample  amends  for  it.  That  hat 
was  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made.  It 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        25 

was     surmounted     with     birds,     beasts, 
flowers,  ferns  and  ribbons,  and  the  hues 
of  this  hat  and  those  of  the  rest  of  the 
raiment   of  the   maid   combined   all   the 
colors  of  the  rainbow  plus    many  others. 
Mercury  became  so   intensely  interested 
in   the  polychromatically  garbed  damsel 
that  he  even  violated  the  proprieties  by 
staring  rudely  and  blankly  at  her,  a  pro- 
ceeding which  she  did  not  seem  to  object 
to,  indeed,  she  expected  such  treatment 
in  Pall  Mall.     As  she  approached  nearer, 
the   heavenly  messenger  perceived   that 
she  was   carrying  something  under  her 
arm.     It    was    a    book    with   gilt   edges. 
Mercury's  curiosity  overcoming  him   he 
boldly  inquired  of  her: 
"What  is  that  you  are  carrying?" 
She  replied,  "That  is  the  Bible." 
"What  is  the  Bible?"  he  again  inquired. 
"It  is  God's  word,"  she  replied. 
"Dear  me,"  exclaimed  Mercury,  "I  did 
not   think   he  ever  spoke   to  you.     And 
pray  where  are  you  going  with  it?" 
"To  church,"  she  replied. 


26  God's  Children 

"What  is  church?" 

"It  is  God's  house/' 

"Why,  he  does  not  live  here,"  ejacu- 
lated Mercury. 

The  female,  who  was  not  at  all  sur- 
prised at  being  accosted  by  an  entire 
stranger,  for  it  was  in  Pall  Mall,  ogled 
Mercury  and  appeared  to  court  a  flirta- 
tion, but  Mercury,  feeling  too  much 
astonished  at  what  he  had  heard,  ended 
the  conversation  as  abruptly  as  he  had 
begun  it,  much  to  the  chagrin  of  the 
lady's  maid.  Mercury  did  not  feel  much 
inclined  for  a  flirtation,  he  being  too 
much  puzzled  at  what  he  had  heard. 
"This  is  truly  strange,"  he  thought, 
"God's  house  and  God's  word;  I  must 
follow  her  and  find  out  what  it  is  and 
where  it  is."  With  this  intent,  he  walked 
at  a  respectful  distance  behind  her 
through  Pall  Mall  and  then  followed  her 
into  Whitehall,  and  as  he  went  he  noticed 
several  others  going  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, many  of  whom  carried  Bibles  and 
prayer-books. 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        27 

But  his  attention  was  suddenly  diverted 
by  the  most  curious  and  untoward  sights 
and  sounds.  He  heard  the  blaring  of 
trumpets  and  the  beating  of  drums  and 
he  saw  a  large  body  of  men  all  wearing 
the  same  red  coats  and  carrying  long 
sharp  steel  implements  upon  their  shoul- 
ders. They  marched  along  with  a  steady 
and  rhythmic  movement  and  looked  like 
a  stream  of  blood  flowing  down  the 
street,  while  the  pale  white  glitter  of  their 
bayonets  appeared  like  a  crest  of  foam 
upon  its  surface.  Above  them  waved 
and  floated  a  flag  of  gaudy  hues  upon 
which  was  designed  a  lion,  some  leopards, 
a  harp,  a  crown  and  some  other  things, 
Mercury  looked  in  astonishment  at  this 
strange  sight  and  he  turned  to  an  old 
gentleman  of  upright  carriage  who  hap- 
pened to  be  walking  near,  and  who  was 
a  retired  army  officer  on  half  pay,  and 
inquired: 

"What  are  those  and  why  do  they  wear 
the  same  kind  of  clothing?  What  will 
they  do  with  those  murderous-looking 


28  God 's  Children 

sharp  things  they  are  carrying,  and  where 
are  they  going  to  ?" 

To  which  the  retired  army  officer 
replied: 

"That  is  a  regiment  of  the  glorious 
British  army,  and  they  are  going  to  South 
Central  Africa  to  slaughter  some  of  those 
beggarly  Boers  who  have  dared  to  rebel 
against  the  glorious  British  empire." 

"What!"  exclaimed  Mercury.  "Slaugh- 
ter their  fellow  men?  Why  should  they 
do  so?  Are  not  God's  Children  happy, 
contented  and  peaceful?  Why  should 
they  kill  each  other?  Why,  the  very 
thought  is  brutal  and  barbarous!" 

The  old  gentleman  to  whom  he  spoke, 
bridled  up  and  replied: 

"Sir,  you  are  a  dangerous  socialist," 
and  then  hurried  away  in  high  dudgeon. 

Mercury  gazed  wonderingly  after  him, 
and  then  remarked: 

"There  must  be  something  wrong  with 
God's  Children  that  they  should  kill  each 
other  in  this  manner,"  and  he  thought 
deeply  about  this  problem  as  he  followed 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        29 

the  throng  of  people  who  were  going  to 
God's  house.  At  the  end  of  Whitehall 
he  turned  with  the  crowd  in  the  direction 
of  Westminster  Abbey  and  was  much 
surprised  when  he  beheld  its  many  tre- 
foiled  and  quaintly-carved  facades  and 
looked  up  at  its  delicate  Gothic  spires 
reaching  upward  toward  heaven  and 
losing  their  graceful  forms  in  the  dim 
and  misty  sky  of  London. 

"Is  that  God's  house?"  he  inquired  of  a 
passer-by. 

"Yes  it  is,"  came  back  the  answer. 

Mercury  gazed  with  awe  and  wonder 
upon  the  beautiful  structure  and  then 
remarked: 

"It  is  grand  and  beautiful,  Truly  it  is 
worthy  of  being  called  God's  house." 

He  entered  and  he  admired  the  lofty 
nave,  the  shadowy  high-groined  roof,  and 
when  he  reached  Henry  the  Seventh's 
Chapel  he  was  pleased  with  that  perfect 
specimen  of  later  Gothic  architecture  and 
admired  much  the  intricate  and  lace-like 
tracery  of  its  wonderfully  carven  stone 


3O  God '  s  Children 

ceiling,  but  he  passed  from  thence  to  that 
part  of  the  Abbey  where  St.  Edward  the 
Confessor  and  many  other  English  kings 
are  buried,  and  he  noticed  in  particular  a 
tomb  above  which  was  suspended  a 
tarnished  helmet,  a  long  rusty  sword  and 
a  shield.  Two  youths  were  standing 
reverently  before  this  tomb  gazing  upon 
it  in  deep  veneration,  and  one  whispered 
unto  the  other: 

"It  is  the  tomb  of  Henry  the  Fifth,  the 
hero  of  Agincourt." 

Mercury  turned  to  the  youth  and  asked 
him: 

"What  noble  deed  did  this  hero  per- 
form that  he  should  be  honored  with 
burial  in  God's  beautiful  house?" 

The  boy  replied: 

"Oh,  he  was  brave.  He  went  to  war, 
and  killed  many  Frenchmen." 

"Do  they  bury  butchers  in  the  house  of 
God?"  sternly  inquired  Mercury. 

"Sir,  you  are  a  vandal,"  indignantly 
rejoined  the  boy. 

Mercury's    astonishment    at    this    curt 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        31 

answer  was  checked  by  a  verger  who 
approached  him  and  informed  him  that 
the  service  of  God  was  about  to  begin, 
and  that  he  must  stop  walking  about 
looking  at  the  sights. 

"I  wonder  how  God's  Children  serve 
him,"  murmured  Mercury,  as  he  walked 
toward  the  nave  and  took  his  seat 
among  the  congregation. 

He  perceived  a  portly,  florid-faced 
being,  attired  in  feminine  costume,  con- 
sisting of  a  long  black  petticoat  and  a 
curious  garment  over  it,  which  looked  like 
a  shirt  to  which  were  attached  sleeves 
so  voluminous  that  ten  poor  children 
might  have  found  material  for  clean  body 
linen  in  them,  ascend  the  pulpit. 

The  large  fat  man  thus  fantastically 
dressed  like  a  woman,  excited  Mercury's 
risibility  and  he  began  to  laugh,  where- 
upon a  pious  young  lady,  who  sat  near 
him,  turned  toward  him  and  eyed  him 
scornfully.  The  action  drew  Mercury's 
attention  to  her  and  he  noticed  that  her 
sleeves  too  were  most  unnecessarily  large. 


;. 


32  God's  Children 

Prompted  by  an  ungovernable  curiosity 
he  inquired  of  her: 

"Why  does  that  man  dress  himself  like 
a  woman?  Why  does  he  wear  long  petti- 
coats and  tremendous  sleeves  the  same  as 
yours?" 

To  which  the  pious  female  replied 
sourly: 

"Young  man,  if  you  do  not  behave 
yourself,  I  will  call  a  verger  and  have  you 
put  out." 

One  of  those  officials  had  noticed  Mer- 
cury smiling  and  had  seen  him  talk  to  the 
female,  and  approaching  the  heavenly 
messenger,  he  addressed  him  thus: 

"Keep  quiet,  sir,  or  I  will  expel  you." 

Mercury  remained  quiet  for  a  time,  but 
something  so  ridiculous  occurred  shortly, 
that  he  felt  himself  compelled  to  laugh 
outright. 

The  tall  fat  man  in  female  garb  began 
to  talk  aloud  with  a  most  abominable 
Oxford  drawl,  as  follows: 

"Oh,  Laud,  we  haughtily  beseech  thee 
that  thou  willst  deign  to  assist  os,  and  we 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        33 

do  ask  of  thee  in  the  most  haughty 
mannah,"  etc. 

"I  wonder  what  he  is  talking  so 
haughtily  to  God  about,"  said  Mercury. 

"How  God  will  laugh  when  I  tell  him 
about  this." 

"Oh,  Laud,"  continued  the  minister, 
"who  didst  come  down  upon  this  earth  to 
die  for  thy  children " 

"What!"  exclaimed  Mercury.  "God 
came  down  upon  this  earth  to  die  for  his 
children?  Why,  what  a  fantastic  idea! 
Are  God's  Children  so  stupid  that  they 
think  he  would  commit  suicide  for  such  a 
trivial  cause?" 

The  thought  was  so  extremely  ridicu- 
lous that  Mercury  began  to  laugh  aloud. 
The  verger  approached  him  again  and 
said  to  him: 

"Now,  behave  yourself;  this  is  the  last 
warning  I  will  give  you,"  and  in  company 
with  another  verger  he  remained  standing 
threateningly  near  Mercury. 

Again  Mercury  became  very  quiet,  and 
again  he  listened  to  the  minister,  but  this 


34  God's  Children 

time  he  heard  words  which  excited  not 
his  ridicule  but  his  wrath. 

"Oh  Laud,"  exclaimed  the  minister, 
"bless  our  army  in  Africa.  May  our 
glorious  British  regiments  be  victorious 
over  those  vile  Boers.  May  they,  in 
righteous  anger,  oh  Laud,  slaughter  those 
rebels  who  have  dared  to  resist  the  onward 
march  of  progress  and  civilization." 

This  was  more  than  Mercury  could 
tolerate.  Rising  angrily,  he  cried  in 
threatening  tones:  "That  is  an  abomin- 
able blasphemy;  God  is  kind  and  merci- 
ful and  you  insult  his  name  when  you 
invoke  his  assistance  in  perpetrating 
wholesale  murder.  Your  foolish  talk 
about  his  dying  for  you  may  be  harmless, 
but  when  you  seek  his  aid  for  the  doing 
of  bloody  deeds,  then" — but  Mercury  got 
no  further  with  his  protest,  for  the  two 
vergers  seized  him  by  the  collar  of  his 
coat,  and  that  part  of  his  clothing,  which 
on  account  of  its  looseness  afforded  an 
ample  grasp,  and  they  then  threw  him 
out  of  the  Abbey. 


Mercury  Begins  to  Investigate        35 

Thus  was  God's  messenger  thrown  out 
of  God's  house  by  God's  Children  because 
he  objected  to  the  blasphemy  of  God's 
name. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MERCURY  CONTINUES    HIS  INQUIRY  INTO    THE 

CONDITION  OF    GOD's  CHILDREN  AND 

MEETS  WITH  MORE  SURPRISES 

In  any  case  there  are  two  cities,  hostile  to  one 
another — the  city  of  the  poor  and  the  city  of  the  rich : 
and  each  of  these  contains  many  cities ;  and  if  you  deal 
with  them  as  one  you  will  find  yourself  thoroughly  mis- 
taken; but  if  you  treat  them  as  two  and  give  to  one 
class  in  the  community  the  power  and  persons  of  the 
other  you  will  have  many  allies  and  few  enemies. — 
Plato's  Republic,  Book  IV. 

A  large  crowd  of  idlers,  prompted  by 
curiosity,  gathered  around  Mercury  when 
he  was  expelled  from  God's  house  and 
gazed  anxiously  upon  him,  eagerly 
expecting  him  to  fight  with  one  of  the 
vergers,  and  thus  enable  them  to  enjoy 
that  prettiest  of  London  street  scenes,  "a 
row."  When  Mercury  walked  away  they 
were  much  chagrined  and  had  to  content 
themselves  with  answering  the  anxious 

questionings    of    other    idlers    who    had 

36 


Mercury  Continues  His  Inquiry       37 

arrived  too  late,  and  who  were  eagerly 
asking,  "What's  up?" 

Mercury  had  not  proceeded  far  from 
the  scene  of  the  disturbance  when  he  was 
overtaken  by  a  politely  disposed,  but  very 
aristocratic-looking  old  gentleman  whose 
features  were  of  the  clean-cut  Norman 
order  and  whose  habiliments  evidenced 
the  height  of  sartorial  art.  In  a  conde- 
scending and  patronizing  manner  he  be- 
gan to  bestow  upon  Mercury  that  which 
men  are  always  willing  to  give  gratuitously 
because  it  costs  nothing  to  acquire  — 
advice.  Those  who  give  the  most  advice 
usually  need  it  most. 

"Sir,"  began  the  old  gentleman,  "I  hope 
you  will  pardon  my  familiarity,  but  my 
intentions  are  gentlemanly  and  for  your 
welfare.  My  dear  young  sir,  you  evi- 
dently imbibed  so  much  champagne  last 
night  that  you  are  still  in  a  slightly  after- 
dinner  condition.  Pray  don't  be  offended; 
remember,  I  speak  for  your  welfare.  I 
perceived  you  this  morning  in  Pall  Mall, 
and  although  you  are  a  stranger  to  me,  I 


38  God's  Children 

became  convinced  by  your  distinguished 
bearing,  that  you  were  a  gentleman,  and 
when  I  afterward  saw  you  attempting  to 
strike  up  a  flirtation  with  a  young  lady  in 
the  Abbey,  laughing  at  the  minister,  and 
fighting  with  the  vergers,  I  became  con- 
vinced that  my  first  impression  con- 
cerning you  must  be  correct. 

"I  would  kindly  advise  you  to  retire  to 
your  chambers.  I  have  much  sympathy 
with  a  young  gentleman  sowing  his  wild 
oats,  for  I  am  reaping  mine  now,  and  my 
advice  is  tendered  to  you  out  of  a  gentle- 
manly regard  for  your  good/' 

He  continued  much  further  in  a  similar 
strain,  and  Mercury,  although  not  quite 
comprehending  what  he  meant,  tolerated 
jhim  because  the  heavenly  beings  are  nat- 
-urally  polite,  and  the  advice,  although 
slightly  blase  and  wearisome,  was  offered 
with  a  good  intention. 

Suddenly,  however,  the  old  aristocrat's 
admonitions  were  rudely  interrupted  by 
the  appearance  of  a  man  of  extremely 
unprepossessing  exterior.  With  a  pallid 


Mercury  Continues  If  is  Inquiry       39 

and  hunger-marked  face,  attired  in 
squallid  and  tattered  garb,  a  beggar 
approached  them.  Extending  a  toil-worn 
knotty  hand,  he  beseeched  alms  in  plead- 
ing tones,  telling  meanwhile  of  hunger 
and  cold  and  suffering.  Prompted  by 
that  most  heavenly  instinct,  mercy,  Mer- 
cury bestowed  upon  the  suppliant  a  small 
sum  of  money,  but  was  much  surprised  to 
hear  the  old  gentleman,  who  had  been 
talking  in  such  kind  and  paternal  tones, 
refuse  in  a  harsh  and  brutal  manner. 

Turning  to  him,  Mercury  asked  in  sur- 
prise: 

"Why  is  that  man  so  miserable  and 
destitute  while  so  many  are  comfortable, 
well-clad  and  well-fed,  and  why,  my 
friend,  do  you  refuse  to  relieve  his  urgent 
needs  in  such  harsh  and  brutal  manner?" 

"Because  he  is  a  vagabond,  a  loafer, 
who  is  too  lazy  to  work,  and  I  do 
not  believe  in  encouraging  pauperism," 
replied  the  gentleman. 

"Had  I  known  that  I  would  not  have 
encouraged  him  neither,"  remarked  Mer- 


4O  God's  Children 

cury,  "for  in  a  clean  comfortable  land 
like  this  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  such 
abject  want,  and  I  consider  the  condition 
of  that  man  a  fitting  punishment  for  his 
idleness.  These  palatial  buildings  could 
not  be  raised  without  labor;  your  clothing 
could  not  be  made  without  labor;  the 
food  which  has  made  you  so  sleek  and 
healthy  could  not  be  provided  and  pre- 
pared without  labor,  and  such  people 
as  that  idle  and  dirty  man  (I  hope  they 
are  not  numerous,  in  fact,  I  am  sure  they 
are  not,  for  this  is  the  first  I  have  seen) 
should  not  be  encouraged  in  their  filthy 
indolence  by  the  nice  clean  members  of 
the  community,  who  do  work,  such  for 
instance  as  yourself." 

"Sir,"  hastily  queried  the  aristocrat,  "do 
I  understand  you  to  insinuate  that  you 
take  me  for  a  workingman?  Are  my 
manners,  sir,  suggestive  of  the  toiling, 
sweating  multitude?" 

"What!"  exclaimed  Mercury,  "don't  you 
work?" 

"Of  course  I  do  not,"  replied  the  other. 


Mercury  Continues  His  Inqiiiry       41 

"I  am  a  gentleman — it  is  beneath  my 
dignity  to  do  so." 

"Then,  if  you  do  not  work,  and  he  does 
not  work,"  asked  Mercury,  pointing  in  the 
direction  of  the  beggar,  "how  comes  it 
that  you  are  a  gentleman  and  he  is  a 
loafer?  How  is  it  that  you  are  fat,  well- 
dressed  and  happy,  and  he  is  lean,  ragged 
and  miserable?  Why  do  you  speak  con- 
temptuously of  work  and  then  blame  the 
man  because  he  will  not  do  that  which 
you  despise?" 

Furiously  the  old  aristocrat  replied: 
"Sir,  your  clothing  and  manners  led  me  to 
mistake  you  for  a  gentleman,  but  I  now 
see  my  error.  You  are  a  leveller,  a  revo- 
lutionist, sir,  and  I  now  believe  your  object 
in  Pall  Mall  was  not  a  lawful  one.  By  Jove, 
how  hard  it  is  to  distinguish  between  a 
gentleman  and  a  commoner  these  days." 
Thus  rapidly  speaking,  he  hurried  away, 
purple  in  the  face  with  anger. 

Mercury  looked  thoughtfully  in  the 
direction  of  the  retreating  gentleman  and 
remarked: 


42  God '  s  Children 

"These  children  of  God  are  really  a 
problem.  Idleness  is  a  curse  and  is 
despised  in  one  set  of  men;  it  is  a 
blessing  and  is  rewarded  with  honors  and 
riches  in  another.  This  is  the  first 
problem  which  I  do  not  understand.  The 
next  one  is,  if  none  of  these  people  work, 
who  builds  all  the  palaces  and  mansions 
and  who  keeps  them  and  the  roadway 
in  repair  ?  These  are  rather  puzzling 
questions,  and  then  the  astonishing 
absurdity  of  that  ridiculous  proceeding 
which  they  call  the  service  of  God  and 
their  willful  and  reckless  slaughter  of 
other  people  which  they  term  war  and 
which  they  appear  to  glory  in.  These 
subjects  I  must  find  out  about."  Lowly 
he  bent  his  head  and  began  to  ponder  on 
these  strange  questions.  He  retraced  his 
steps  the  same  way  as  he  had  come,  fol- 
lowing the  custom  of  wanderers  in 
strange  places  who  usually  go  back  the 
same  way  as  they  come.  Passing  back  up 
Whitehall  he  reached  Trafalgar  Square 
and  then  instead  of  going  westward,  as  in 


Mercury  Continues  His  Inquiry       43 

the  morning,  he  turned  east  and  entered 
the  Strand.  Still  wrapped  in  thought  he 
wandered  on.  Once  when  passing  Temple 
Bar,  that  spot  rendered  sacred  by  so  many 
classic  memories,  haunted  by  the  shades  of 
Shakespeare,  Jonson,  Dryden,  Goldmith, 
Johnson  and  Boswell,  he  lifted  his  head 
and  noticed  as  he  entered  Fleet  Street 
that  the  people  were  garbed  in  plainer, 
more  careless,  and  in  a  few  instances 
rather  shabby,  attire,  and  he  remarked: 

"Ah!  they  do  not  appear  to  be  as  well 
clothed  here,"  but  he  added,  critically 
examining  a  few  faces  of  those  that 
passed,  "they  appear  to  be  more  thought- 
ful and  intellectual." 

Mercury  was  passing  through  Fleet 
Street,  and  the  people  he  remarked  were 
journalists,  some  of  them  hack  writers 
who  certainly  would  be  intelligent  if  they 
had  time  to  be  so — but  they  have  not. 

Still  he  proceeded  eastward  when  sud- 
denly the  noise  of  traffic  seemed  to  cease. 
Mercury  had  entered  into  a  city  of  empty 
buildings  and  depopulated  streets  where 


44  God' 's  Children 

everything  seemed  to  be  so  dreadfully 
and  ominously  still  that  the  abomination 
of  desolation  seemed  to  be  upon  the 
place.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by 
an  oppressive  stillness  and  silence.  High 
majestic  buildings,  palatial  in  their 
aspects  and  proportions,  rose  in  grim  and 
sombre  majesty  on  either  side,  but  there 
were  no  curtains  in  their  windows,  and 
these  windows  were  inscribed  with  many 
names.  No  smoke  arose  from  their  chim- 
neys and  although  these  houses  were  so 
large  and  impressive,  it  appeared  as 
though  they  were  all  deserted.  It  was 
not  only  so  with  a  few,  but  every  street 
appeared  to  be  full  of  such  houses,  silent, 
still  and  empty. 

"What  can  this  mean?"  mused  Mercury. 
"Here  is  a  deserted  city.  Here  are  large 
palaces  apparently  entirely  empty.  Are 
God's  Children  so  foolish  that  they  build 
houses  and  do  not  live  in  them?"  And 
he  looked  around  in  vain  to  find  a  mortal 
from  whom  to  inquire  the  cause  of  this 
remarkable  phenomenon. 


Mercury  Continues  His  Inquiry      45 

A  watchman,  whose  unpleasant  and 
monotonous  duty  it  was  to  take  care  of 
some  building  nearby,  at  length  appeared, 
and  Mercury  thus  addressed  him: 

41  My  friend,  what  are  all  these  buildings, 
and  why  are  they  all  so  dreary,  void  and 
uninhabited?" 

To  which  the  watchman  replied: 

"These  are  banks,  insurance  offices  and 
other  large  commercial  establishments, 
and  this  is  called  the  city,  that  part  of  Lon- 
don which  is  devoted  to  business  and  com- 
merce. Nobody  lives  here  and  although 
many  are  to  be  found  here  on  workdays, 
this  place  is  deserted  on  Sundays." 

"And  why  is  it  deserted  on  Sunday?" 
asked  Mercury. 

"Because,"  replied  the  watchman,  "on 
this  day  in  the  week  they  serve  God;  on 
the  other  six  Mammon." 

"Oh,  then,"  remarked  Mercury,  "they 
have  two  gods  whom  they  serve?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  watchman,  who  like 
many  of  his  occupation  was  something  of 
a  cynic,  "and  they  do  so  very  effectually." 


CHAPTER  V 

MERCURY   IN   WHITECHAPEL 

O,  Dii  immortales!  Ubinam  gentium  sumus?  Quam 
rem  publicam  habemus?  In  qua  urbe  vivimus? 

Cicero. 

Each  strove  by  hearty  blows  and  knocks 
To  prove  his  theory  orthodox. 

— Butler's  Hudibras. 

Musing  deeply  about  the  strange  habits 
of  God's  Children,  Mercury  proceeded  on 
his  way  eastward  through  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard,  Cheapside,  Poultry,  Cornhill 
and  Leadenhall  Street,  still  surrounded 
by  tall  stately  buildings,  and  the  chilly 
silence  of  streets  and  structures  made 
him  meditate  more  deeply. 

With  head  bent  down  and  hands 
joined  behind  his  back  he  walked  along 
mechanically,  thinking  earnestly  and  pro- 
foundly over  these  problems.  While  thus 
abstracted  he  passed  from  Leadenhall 
Street  through  Aldgate  into  a  noisy,  foul- 
46 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  47 

smelling,  busy  thoroughfare;  but  he  was 
so  preoccupied  that  he  heard  not  the  din 
and  saw  not  the  motley  throng  of  people. 
Suddenly  he  was  rudely  awakened  from 
his  ponderings  by  somebody  jostling 
against  him.  Mercury  looked  up  and, 
shuddered,  for  a  drunken  woman  had 
staggered  against  him.  This  degraded 
creature,  who  carried  a  sickly-looking 
infant  in  her  arms,  was  so  repulsively 
intoxicated  that  she  reeled.  Her  face 
was  bloated  and  bestial,  her  clothing 
soiled,  tattered  and  awry,  and  she  turned 
toward  Mercury  and  uttered  such  a 
revolting  flood  of  vulgarities  and  obscen- 
ities that  even  the  passers-by,  accustomed 
as  they  were  to  such  parlance,  stopped  in 
surprise.  Mercury  stood  looking  at  her 
in  astonishment  and  disgust  until  a  large 
crowd  had  assembled.  He  gazed  into  her 
debauched  face  and  upon  her  bedraggled 
clothing  and  then  upon  those  who  pressed 
around  him,  and  in  deep  astonishment  he 
exclaimed:  "Are  these  God's  Children? 
Why,  that  cannot  be!"  And  then  he 


48  God's  Children 

quickly  jostled  his  way  out  of  the  crowd. 
Proceeding  along  the  street  he  noticed 
that  all  whom  he  met  were  attired  in  the 
same  garb,  some  of  them  ragged  and 
some  in  tawdry/'  cheap  clothing,  which 
was  at  best  but  a  ridiculous  imitation,  a 
tawdry  caricature  of  the  fine  clothing 
worn  by  those  whom  he  had  seen  at  the 
West  End. 

He  looked  up  at  the  buildings,  and 
instead  of  the  palatial  residences  and 
clubs  or  grand  gloomy  bank  buildings 
which  he  had  seen  in  other  parts  of  the 
city,  he  was  astonished  to  perceive 
unstable,  tottering,  antique  structures, 
some  of  them  centuries  old,  each  story  of 
which  leaned  over  the  other  toward  the 
street  as  though  looking  down  to  see 
where  it  would  fall,  sooner  or  later,  while 
some  others  leaned  against  each  other,  in 
a  dangerously  oblique  manner,  as  if  they 
were  as  intoxicated  as  many  of  their 
occupants  were. 

The  gin  palaces  were  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  ribald,  vulgar,  drunken 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  49 

crowds,  and  from  the  open  doors  of  these 
showy  dens  of  iniquity  issued  forth 
snatches  of  coarse  music,  hall  ditties, 
blent  with  hoarse,  hilarious  laughter, 
filthy  jokes,  brutal  jeers,  savage  quarrel- 
ings  and  thick,  foul-smelling  tobacco 
smoke. 

A  girl,  young  in  years,  but  old  in  vice, 
whose  form  was  still  that  of  a  child,  but 
whose  face,  with  its  bold  eyes,  painted 
cheeks  and  thick  sensual  mouth  pro- 
claimed a  soul  long  steeped  in  filth,  and 
whose  ragged  clothing  was  rendered 
repulsive  by  bright  cheap  ribbons  and 
sham  jewelry,  approached  Mercury  and, 
leering  at  him,  whispered  something. 

The  messenger  from  heaven,  where  all 
are  pure,  turned  away  pale  and  shud- 
dering. 

"Can  this  be  the  earth?  Are  these 
God's  Children?"  exclaimed  Mercury.  "It 
may  be  that  while  in  my  recent  abstrac- 
tion I  left  the  earth  and  passed  to  some 
strange  repulsive  place  that  God  knows 
not  of.  Where  are  those  beautiful,  well- 


50  God's  Children 

dressed  people,  those  fine  buildings  that  I 
saw  but  recently?  Here  everything  is  so 
different.  I  must  inquire." 

He  looked  about  for  some  one  to  speak 
>to,  but  was  afraid  to  address  the  vile 
wretches  who  thronged  the  street.  At 
length  he  saw  a  man  who  appeared  to  be 
cleaner  and  stouter  than  the  others  and 
who  wore  a  blue  costume  with  brass 
buttons  on  it  and  who  carried  suspended 
at  his  side  a  baton.  Mercury  resolved  to 
ask  him,  not  because  he  looked  more 
intelligent  than  the  common  people,  but 
because  he  appeared  as  if  he  were  an 
animated  sign-post,  a  living  street  direc- 
tory. This  man  was  really  of  that  char- 
acter, for  he  belonged  to^that  body  of 
men  who  incidentally  and  accidentally 
sometimes  arrest  a  petty  and  inexperi- 
enced criminal,  but  who  are  occupied 
principally  in  answering  questions  con- 
cerning the  way  about  town,  and  who, 
apart  from  this,  seldom  do  aught  else 
save  lifting  glasses  of  beer  to  their  lips  or 
a  club  to  break  the  head  of  a  striker — he 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  51 

was  a  policeman.  Approaching  him  Mer- 
cury inquired: 

"My  friend,  is  this  the  earth,  and  if  it 
is  not,  where  am  I?" 

The  limb  of  the  law  gazed  disdainfully 
upon  his  questioner,  and  scornfully  ejacu- 
lated: 

"Get  out  yer  bloomin'  toff,  d'ye  want 
ter  make  a  monkey  out  o'  me?" 

To  which  Mercury  replied: 

"Well,  my  friend,  you  tell  me  to  get 
out,  and  I  assure  you  I  certainly  would 
like  to  do  so,  for  I  do  not  like  my  sur- 
roundings, and  as  to  making  a  monkey  of 
you,  the  power  to  do  so  belongs  to  God 
alone.  I  certainly  would  make  that 
necessary  improvement  in  you  if  it  lay  in 
my  power.  However,  I  beg  of  you  to  tell 
me  where  I  am,  for  I  am  a  stranger  in  a 
very  strange  land." 

The  policeman  looked  in  sullen  surprise 
at  Mercury  and  laconically  replied: 

"You  are  in  High  Street,  Whitechapel." 

Mercury  thanked  him  and  continued 
on  his  way  down  the  unwholesome  and 


52  God's  Children 

noisy  street.  He  saw  the  barefoot  beggar, 
the  haggard-faced  workingman,  the 
shabbily-attired  woman,"  the  pallid  little 
children  and  he  wondered,  pitied  and 
sympathized  at  and  with  all. 

Suddenly  he  heard  again  the  stirring 
sound  of  martial  music  which  he  had 
before  heard  in  Whitehall,  the  beating  of 
drum,  the  blaring  of  trumpets,  accom- 
panied by  the  measured  tread  of  many 
marching  feet.  He  saw  the  red-coated 
soldiers  passing  along  with  mechanical 
regularity  and  stern  symmetry.  The 
crowd  gazed  sullenly  and  darkly  upon 
the  troops  as  they  passed,  and  Mercury, 
who  happened  at  the  time  to  be  standing 
near  a  cadaverous-faced  workingman, 
remarked  to  him  in  order  to  find  out 
something  further  about  the  barbarous 
custom  of  war: 

"So  that  is  a  part  of  the  glorious  British 
army  marching  off  to  Africa  to  maintain 
the  glory  of  the  British  Empire?" 

But  the  workman  turned  upon  him  with 
a  scowl  and  fiercely  rejoined: 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  53 

"You  talk  to  me  about  the  glory  of  the 
British  Empire.  Glory,  indeed!  They 
say  the  sun  never  sets  upon  it  but  that 
same  sun  rises  every  morning  upon  my 
misery,  for  I  am  unemployed  and  desti- 
tute, and  to-morrow  it  will  rise  upon 
sorrow  for  my  only  son,  the  one  hope  of 
my  life,  the  solace  of  my  age,  marches  to 
the  war  with  that  regiment.  Get  from 
me,  you  damned  patriotic  liar,  or  I  will 
take  you  by  the  throat."  And  he  supple- 
mented his  remarks  with  such  a  threaten- 
ing gesture  that  Mercury  hurried  away, 
wondering  why  God's  Children  differed  so 
in  their  views.  He  passed  down  High 
Street  and  through  Whitechapel  Road, 
which  is  a  continuation  of  it,  until  he 
reached  Mile  End  Waste.  The  latter 
street,  which  is  situated  at  the  eastern 
extremity  of  Whitechapel,  is  so  extremely 
wide  that  it  provides  ample  space  for  open- 
air  meetings,  several  of  which  are  held 
there  every  Sunday.  When  Mercury 
arrived  thither  and  perceived  these  meet- 
ings he  became  much  interested* 


54  God's  Children 

His  attention  was  first  attracted  by  a 
strange  aggregation  of  fantastically- 
dressed  folk,  the  men  wearing  red  guern- 
seys and  the  women  huge  coal-scoop 
bonnets.  They  were  kicking,  dancing, 
screaming  and  praying,  several  banged 
tambourines  most  discordantly,  while  one 
huge  fellow  belabored  a  bass  drum.  All 
at  once  they  all  ceased  their  uproar  and 
one  stepped  into  the  center  of  the  circle 
which  they  formed,  and  by  means  of  his 
very  powerful  jaws  began  to  make  a 
louder  and  harsher  noise  than  all  the 
others  put  together  plus  drum  and  tam- 
bourines had  made  before.  This  shock- 
ingly stentorious  dissonance  was  presumed 
to  be  a  sermon  and  it  ran  as  follows: 

"The  cause  of  all  the  misery  which 
exists  is  the  sin  of  man.  It  is  the  punish- 
ment of  the  Almighty  upon  his  children 
and  cannot  be  avoided.  Submit  in 
patience  and  fortitude  to  your  toils  and 
wants  and  shames  here  below,  and  God 
will  give  you  rest  and  wealth  and  glory  in 
heaven.  Envy  not  the  rich,  condemn  not 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  55 

the  powerful  even  though  they  oppress 
you.  Leave  them  to  the  justice  of  God 
if  they  are  wrong.  Simply  set  your  eyes 
and  minds  upon  the  heavenly  hereafter; 
no  matter  what  befalls  you  here,  an 
eternal  salvation  will  be  yours.  To  cavil, 
to  question  and  to  struggle  is  in  vain  for 
God  wills  that  these  things  should  be  and 
weak  men  cannot  alter  and  should  not 
question  the  inscrutable  manifestations  of 
God's  divine  will  and  providence. 

Mercury  turned  from  him  with  a  look 
of  disgust  and  remarked: 

"It  is  well  for  you  that  God  does  not 
hear  you,  for  if  he  heard  you  blame  him 
for  this  widespread  misery  which  appears 
to  be  the  result  of  ignorance  among  men, 
and  telling  these  poor  people  to  tolerate 
their  suffering  in  expectation  of  a  reward 
which  will  never  be  realized,  he  would 
make  short  work  of  you." 

One  of  the  strangely  dressed  girls  who 
belonged  to  the  curious  assemblage  and 
who  wore  a  huge  bonnet  upon  which  was 
inscribed  the  name  "Salvation  Army/' 


56  God 's  Children 

observing  the  serious  aspect  of  Mercury, 
approached  him  and  asked: 

"Young  man,  do  you  belong  to  God?" 
Mercury,  surprised,  replied: 
"Yes,  I  do.     But  why  do  you  ask?" 
"Because,"    replied    the    girl,   "we   are 
fighting  the  battle  of  God." 

"Fighting  for  God!"  ejaculated  Mer- 
cury, in  astonishment.  "Allow  me  to  tell 
you  in  behalf  of  a  powerful  God  who 
does  not  need  your  services,  that  you  had 
better  fight  for  man." 

Mercury  then  proceeded  on  his  way. 
He  had  not  gone  far  when  he  per- 
ceived another  meeting.  This  assem- 
blage appeared  to  be  more  quiet  and 
orderly  than  the  other,  and  many  plainly 
garbed  people  of  both  sexes  were  listen- 
ing to  a  discourse  on  temperance  deliv- 
ered by  a  gentleman  whose  pale,  sickly 
countenance  was  rudely  contrasted  with 
a  very  rubicund  nasal  organ.  In  fact  it 
appeared  as  if  the  whole  of  the  orator's 
complexion  was  concentrated  in  his  nose. 
Mercury  overheard  one  old  lady  in  the 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  57 

audience  telling  another  that  the  color  of 
:he  dear  gentleman's  nose  was  due  to  indi- 
gestion and  when  the  dear  gentleman 
extracted  a  flask  from  his  pocket  the  old 
lady  remarked  that  it  contained  medicine 
For  indigestion,  but  Mercury,  who  had  by 
this  time  approached  very  close  to  the 
speaker,  noticed  an  extremely  pungent 
^dor  exhaling  from  the  flask.  The  tee- 
totaler spoke  as  follows: 

"This  question  is  not  one  that  can  be 
:alled  entirely  a  matter  concerning  God; 
it  is  not  merely  a  religious,  it  is  a  social 
and  political  question,  for  it  also  concerns 
men  and  governments  as  well.  If  men 
and  governments  would  only  exert  them- 
selves in  the  proper  way  they  could  erad- 
icate much  of  the  want  and  vice  which 
prevails  in  society.  Drunkenness  is  the 
cause  of  poverty  and  all  vices  and  crime 
originate  from  the  same  cause.  Temper- 
ance and  thrift  are  all  that  is  necessary 
to  make  men  happy,  contented  and  pros- 
perous." The  speaker  then  drew  such  a 
vivid  word  picture  of  the  degradation 


58  God 's  Children 

and  suffering  which  are  the  results  of 
drink  and  proved  by  statistics  how  much 
wealth  was  squandered  in  intoxication, 
that  Mercury  became  of  the  opinion  that 
the  orator  was  right. 

'This  man,"  he  thought,  "at  least  is 
right  in  that  he  is  not  expecting  heaven 
to  do  anything  for  humanity,  but  is  trying 
to  urge  God's  Children  to  do  something 
for  themselves." 

He  then  walked  away  and  peered  into 
several  of  the  rum-shops,  and  when  he 
saw  the  vile,  degraded  throngs  within,  he 
exclaimed: 

"Yes,  that  speaker  was  right,  here  is 
the  cause."  Mercury  walked  a  little 
farther  until  he  came  to  another  meeting 
which  was  peculiar  in  this  respect — there 
was  no  speaker.  A  vacant  platform 
stood  in  the  center  and  around  it 
gathered  in  many  groups  were  earnest 
looking  men  discussing  the  evils  of 
society  and  the  remedy  thereof,  and  Mer- 
cury was  much  puzzled  at  their  intense 
aggressiveness  and  peculiar  terminology. 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  59 

rie  heard  such  expressions  as  "land  value," 
'intrinsic  value,"  ''labor  value,"  and 
'exchange  value";  "ground  rent,"  "eco- 
lomic  rent,"  and  "no  rent";  "proletariat," 
'production,"  "distribution,"  "commodi- 
;ies,"  and  "supply  and  demand" ;  "exploit," 
'capitalist  system,"  etc.,  and  he  began  to 
vender  who  these  strange  earnest  work- 
ngmen  were  who  appeared  to  have  a 
)hraseology  entirely  s^ti  generis.  He 
urned  to  a  workingman  who  stood  wait- 
ng  near  him  and  asked: 
"By  whom  is  this  meeting  called?" 
"Can't  you  see  by  the  mere  fact  that 
he  speaker  has  not  arrived  yet  that  it  is 
i  socialist  meeting?"  replied  the  other. 

Mercury  approached  one  of  the  groups 
)f  debaters  and  heard  a  man^who  did  not 
>elieve  in  government  and  who  was 
rying  to  explain  a  very  incomprehensible 
:ondition  of  society  under  which  all 
vould  cooperate  together  for  the  pro- 
luction  and  distribution  of  wealth  with- 
>ut  any  government  or  regulation  by 
luperintendents  of  the  common  efforts  of 


60  God's  Children 

the  community.  This  man  loudly  pro- 
tested a  passionate  attachment  to  and 
love  for  humanity  while  at  the  same  time 
he  expressed  a  bitter  hatred  for  all  forms 
of  government. 

Thereupon  another  in  the  group  began 
to  disagree  with  the  hater  of  govern- 
ments. This  second  man  began  by  saying 
that  he  agreed  with  the  former  in  his 
detestations  of  government,  but  thought 
the  best  way  to  bring  about  an  ideal  con- 
dition of  absolute  liberty  would  be  by 
imposing  a  single  tax  on  land  values. 
This  gentleman  went  on  to  explain  that 
the  value  of  land  at  the  present  was 
largely  due  to  monopoly  and  that  the 
single  tax  would,  by  abolishing  monopoly, 
make  land  much  cheaper  and  thus  give 
freedom  to  all. 

The  first  speaker  here  interjected  that 
he  could  not  see  how  one  could  object  to 
governmental  control  and  at  the  same 
time  be  anxious  to  make  the  government 
the  sole  landlord. 

He   further   inquired,   If  the  value  of 


Mercury  in  Whitechapel  61 

land  arises  from  monopoly  and  the  single 
tax  would  abolish  monopoly,  what  would 
the  single  taxers  have  left  to  tax? 

Thereupon  his  opponent  said  unpleas- 
ant things  in  a  forcible  strain  which  were 
promptly  replied  to  in  a  similar  strain 
by  the  first  speaker.  Eventually  both 
speakers  rushed  at  each  other  and 
embraced,  and  Mercury  having  heard 
them  express  such  love  for  humanity, 
thought  it  a  friendly  embrace,  but  was 
rudely  astonished  to  see  each  uncurl  his 
right  arm  from  the  other's  neck  and 
punch  most  vigorously.  Both  yelling, 
biting,  kicking  and  punching  most  vigor- 
ously, reeled  to  and  fro  with  their  arms 
around  each  other  with  a  movement  that 
resembled  clumsy  waltzing,  until  having 
reached  the  curbstone  both  tumbled  into 
the  gutter. 

"Why  do  they  act  in  that  brutal 
manner?  Why  do  they  profess  to  love 
humanity  so  much,  yet  love  each  other  so 
little?  Who  are  they  and  what  are  they?" 
asked  Mercury. 


62  God's  Children 

"Oh,  they  are  only  an  anarchist  and  a 
single-taxer  settling  an  argument  in  their 
usual  manner,"  replied  a  bystander. 
Mercury  was  about  to  go  away  when  a 
sudden  movement  in  the  crowd  attracted 
his  attention.  The  speaker  had  at  length 
arrived, 


CHAPTER  VI 

WHAT  THE   SOCIALIST   SAID 

This  need  not  be ;  ye  might  arise  and  will 
That  gold  should  lose  its  power,  and  thrones  their  glory; 
That  love,  which  none  may  bind,  be  free  to  fill 
The  world  like  light,  and  evil  faith  grown  hoary 
With  crime  be  quenched  and  die.     Yon  promontory 
Even  now  eclipses  the  descending  moon: — 
Dungeons  and  palaces  are  transitory — 
High  temples  fade  like  vapor — Man  alone 
Remains  whose  will  has  power  when  all  beside  are  gone. 
—Revolt  of  Islam,  Canto  VII: 
PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY. 

The  chairman  called  the  meeting  to 
order  in  the  name  of  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic Federation,  and  after  a  few  hesi- 
tating remarks  introduced  the  speaker  of 
the  day.  The  speaker  was  pale-faced 
and  carelessly  dressed  and  there  was 
something  earnest,  yet  cynical,  about  his 
keen  intellectual  features  almost  Vol- 
tairian in  their  sharpness  which  impressed 
Mercury  who  listened  carefully  to  the 
following  address: 

63 


64  God's  Children 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  Friends: — There 
are  people  who  tell  us  that  all  the  want 
and  misery  which  we  see  around  us  is 
sent  by  heaven,  inflicted  by  God  upon 
his  children  in  order  to  test  their  forti- 
tude and  prepare  them  by  trials  and 
sufferings  here  below  for  a  brighter  life 
in  the  hereafter.  These  people  blaspheme 
the  name  of  the  God  in  whom  they  pro- 
fess to  believe  when  they  make  him 
particeps  criminis  in  the  brutality  and 
ignorance  of  man.  And  then  after  having 
given  their  God  such  an  extremely  bad 
reputation  they  ask  us  to  tolerate  our 
wrongs  here  below  and  trust  in  him. 

"It  is  often  said  that  God  helps  those 
who  help  themselves,  and  I  may  add 
that  he  trusts  those  who  trust  in  them- 
selves. They  who  would  be  free  them- 
selves must  strike  the  blow.  Men  have 
often  fought  for  God,  but  God  has  never 
fought  for  man  and  never  will. 

"There  is  another  set  of  reformers  who 
tell  us  that  drunkenness  and  improvi- 
dence are  the  causes  of  want  and  misery, 


What  the  Socialist  Said  65 

and  that  if  we  would  become  temperate 
and  thrifty  the  condition  of  the  working 
class  would  be  much  improved.  These 
people  mistake  a  cause  for  an  effect. 
Drunkenness  is  not  the  cause  of  poverty; 
it  is  simply  one  of  the  effects  thereof. 
Poverty  is  the  cause  of  drunkenness  and 
for  all  other  evils  and  crimes.  Given 
better  conditions  and  you  will  have  a 
better  creature,  but  as  long  as  the  condi- 
tions that  surround  the  worker  are  the 
grime  and  dirt  of  the  factory  during  the 
day  and  the  squalor  and  meanness  of  a 
proletarian's  few  rooms  at  night,  so  long 
will  you  have  men  compelled  by  disgust 
with  their  surroundings  to  seek  oblivion 
in  intoxication  and  comfort  and  convivi- 
ality in  the  gilded  gin  palace — the  poor 
man's  parlor. 

"As  far  as  thrift  is  concerned,  I  think  it 
a  mockery  to  tell  those  who  have  nothing 
in  the  present  that  they  should  save 
something  for  the  future,  or  to  tell  those 
who  are  receiving  a  bare  subsistance 
wage  that  they  should,  by  laying  aside  a 


66  God's  Children 

few  pennies  per  week,  save  enough  in  ten 
or  twenty  years  to  purchase  a  country 
seat  similar  to  that  of  the  Duke  of  West- 
minster or  of  Waldorf  Astor.  The  people 
who  preach  thrift  to  unemployed  or 
underpaid  workers,"  are  ignorant  of  ele- 
mentary arithmetic. 

"Neither  the  deity  nor  drunkenness, 
neither  the  providence  of  heaven  nor  the 
improvident  man  are  the  causes  of  the 
evils  which  afflict  human  society.  There 
is  one  sole  and  only  cause  and  that  is  the 
private  ownership  or  monopoly  by  a  few, 
of  those  essentials  which  are  necessary 
for  the  welfare  of  the  many,  viz.:  land 
and  capital.  There  is  but  one  cure  and 
that  is  the  public  ownership  and  manipu- 
lation of  capital  and  land.  Monopoly  is 
the  evil;  socialism  is  the  cure.  Private 
ownership  is  the  one  great  wrong;  public 
ownership  and  control  is  the  one  great 
remedy. 

"Land,  the  first  of  these  essentials,  is  at 
present  monopolized  by  the  few  and 
debarred  to  the  many,  unless  they,  the 


What  the  Socialist  Said  67 

many,  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of  rent. 
Land  is  undoubtedly  nature's  free  gift  to 
humanity  collectively,  not  a  present 
made  to  a  few  landlords,  and  hence  we 
socialists  claim  that  land,  the  passive 
factor,  should  be  nationalized,  i.e.,  should 
belong  to  the  many,  not  to  the  few. 
There  are  many  reasons  in  favor  of  this 
proposition  and  the  first  is  that  without 
land  we  cannot  live  or  even  exist,  for 
everything  we  eat,  wear  and  use  comes 
originally  from  the  land.  The  national 
ownership  of  the  land,  then,  is  the  first 
of  our  demands. 

"Next  we  believe  that  labor  being  the 
active  force  or  potency  which  when  exer- 
cised upon  land  creates  all  wealth,  should 
be  employed  by  national  governments 
alone.  Labor  is  the  skill  of  the  mind,  the 
strength  in  the  muscles  and  bodies  of 
strong,  rough  laborers  and  the  mixture  of 
strength  and  skill  in  the  mechanic.  This 
labor  cannot  be  utilized  unless  it  is 
applied  to  land  or  raw  material  and  these 
being  monopolized,  the  laborer  is  com- 


68  God's  Children 

pelled  to  go  to  the  monopolists  and  work 
for  them  at  their  terms  and  when  they 
want  him  to.  When  these  monopolists  of 
the  passive  factor,  land,  do  not  allow  the 
workmen  to  exercise  the  active  factor, 
labor,  upon  the  land  and  its  products, 
then  the  laborer  does  not  receive  wages 
and  he  starves.  Hence  in  order  to 
prevent  the  prospects  of  starvation 
among  those  willing  to  perform  such  a 
function  as  labor,  we  socialists  believe 
that  all  able  to  work  should  be  employed 
by  a  government  which  should  be  elected 
by  the  suffrages  of  all,  and  that  the 
workers  should  not  be  dependent  upon 
the  whim  or  avarice  of  a  few  as  they  are 
at  present. 

"But  even  should  the  workers  be  given 
access  to  the  land  and  the  raw  material, 
they  even  then  would  need  something 
more  in  this  age  of  invention  and  mechan- 
ical ingenuity.  The  worker  needs  not  only 
the  things  to  work  on,  but  the  things  to 
work  with,  not  merely  land  and  raw 
materials  but  tools.  Furthermore,  the 


What  the  Socialist  Said  6g 

tools  he  would  need  would  not  merely  be 
the  crude  implements  used  by  his  ances- 
tors, but  the  complicated  tools,  the  vast 
and  expensive  machinery,  of  modern 
times.  These  tools,  these  machines,  fac- 
tories and  railroads  are  capital,  the 
auxiliary  factor  so  necessary  to  assist 
labor  in  conjunction  with  land  and  raw 
material  to  create  the  wealth  of  the  com- 
munity. These  factories,  railroads  and 
these  machines  are  at  present  monopo- 
lized by  capitalists,  as  they  are  called. 

"We  have  reached  the  point  where  we 
perceive  that  there  are  three  factors 
which  are  necessary  for  the  production 
and  distribution  of  all  wealth,  and  these 
three  factors  are  land,  labor  and  capital. 
Land  is  called  by  socialists  the  passive 
factor,  because  it  must  be  worked  upon 
before  wealth  can  be  produced;  labor, 
the  active  factor,  because  it  acts  upon  or 
fructifies  the  earth,  and  capital  is  defined 
as  the  auxiliary  factor  because  it  helps 
labor  to  produce  wealth  from  the  earth 
and  its  products. 


70  God's  Children 

"Now,  my  good  friends,  we  socialists* 
simply  claim  that  capital  should  be  take& 
by  the  people  from  the  capitalists  and 
should  be  owned  and  used  by  the  govern- 
ment in  the  interest  of  all  the  people. 
When  we  make  a  demand  so  daring  and 
revolutionary  in  its  nature,  we  are  com- 
pelled of  course  to  prove  its  equity.  I  pro- 
pose, as  a  socialist,  to  deal  with  this  ques- 
tion of  capital  both  from  an  economical 
and  ethical  point  of  view  and  to  prove  from 
both  these  standpoints  that  capital  should 
not  belong  to  the  capitalists  as  it  does  at 
present,  but  that  it  should  be  owned  by 
the  government  in  behalf  of  all.  Let  us 
consider  it  in  its  economic  aspect  first 
and  inquire:  'What  is  capital?' 

"David  Ricardo  tells  us  that  'Capital  is 
that  part  of  wealth  which  is  used  to  pro- 
duce more  wealth.'  The  same  author 
defines  wealth  as  'All  articles  of  use  or 
luxury  which  are  produced  by  useful  hu- 
man labor.'  Now,  if  wealth  consists  of 
articles  produced  by  useful  human  labor, 
and  if  capital  is  but  a  part  of  wealth,  does 


What  the  Socialist  Said  71 

it  not  logically  follow  that  the  laborers  who 
produced  the  whole  must  have  produced 
the  part  capital.  How,  then,  is  it  that 
you,  the  laboring  class  who  perform  this 
useful  labor,  own  and  control  no  capital? 
Let  us,  however,  go  into  this  matter  in  a 
more  elaborate  manner.  Let  us  take  up 
the  questions  of  wealth,  capital  and  labor 
and,  by  inquiring  into  the  nature  and  ex- 
plaining the  functions  of  each  prove  that 
the  capitalist  has  no  right  to  the  capital 
which  he  owns. 

"First,  labor  has  already  been  defined 
as  strength  and  skill  usefully  applied. 
Karl  Marx,  in  Capital,  Part  III,  Chapter 
VII,  thus  describes  labor:  'Labor  is,  in 
the  first  place,  a  process  in  which  both 
man  and  nature  participate,  and  in  which 
man  of  his  own  accord,  starts,  regu- 
lates and  controls  the  material  reactions 
between  himself  and  nature.  He  opposes 
himself  to  nature  as  one  of  her  own 
forces  setting  in  motion  arms  and  legs, 
head  and  hands,  the  natural  forces  of  his 
body  in  order  to  appropriate  nature's 


72  God's  Children 

productions  in  a  form  adapted  to  his  own 
wants."  It  is  only  by  the  exercise  of 
labor  that  wealth  can  be  created.  In  his 
Wealth  of  Nations,  Chapter  V,  Adam 
Smith  says:  'Useful  human  labor  applied 
to  land  and  raw  material  creates  all 
wealth  and  makes  all  value.' 

"Now,  there  is  a  period  in  the  life  of  a 
thing,  a  form  of  its  matter,  when  it  is  not 
wealth  or  an  object  of  use  or  luxury,  and 
that  is  before  labor  has  been  applied  to  it 
to  cause  its  value. 

"Let  us  take  an  object  of  wealth,  a 
commodity  which  has  some  value  and  by 
inquiring  into  the  genesis  of  its  value 
make  plain  the  proposition  that  labor 
creates  all  wealth.  Let  us  take  this  plat- 
form upon  which  I  am  standing.  It  is 
now  an  article  of  use;  it  has  value,  there- 
fore it  is  so  much  wealth.  Now,  let  us 
trace  it  from  its  useless  beginning  to  its 
useful  finish.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
wood  which  forms  this  platform  was  the 
trunk  of  a  tree,  and  that  tree,  probably 
grew  in  the  dark  recesses  of  some  dense 


What  the  Socialist  Said  73 

forest.  While  the  wood  formed  part  of 
that  tree  it  was  not  wealth  because  it  had 
no  value.  It  had  no  exchange  value 
because  nobody  would  or  could  exchange 
a  useful  thing  like  a  coat  for  a  useless, 
unknown  thing  like  a  tree  which  nobody 
had  ever  seen  or  knew  of.  While  this 
wood  formed  part  of  the  tree,  it  could  not 
be  used  for  a  platform  and  hence  it  had 
no  use  value,  and  before  work  had  been 
extended  upon  it,  it  could  have  no  labor 
value.  , 

"A  lumberman  entered  the  forest  one 
day,  and  by  the  use  of  an  axe,  guided  by 
his  strength,  he  lowered  the  tree.  The 
moment  he  did  so  the  tree  began  to  have 
value;  it  became  worth  something  simply 
because  labor  had  been  applied  to  and 
exercised  upon  it.  Other  laborers  lopped 
off  the  branches  and  again  its  value  was 
increased  further,  for  the  tree  became  of 
greater  value  as  a  branchless  trunk  than 
it  was  in  its  previous  form,  and  this 
increase  of  value  was  simply  due  to  the 
fact  that  more  labor  had  been  expended 


74  God's  Children 

upon  it.  So  far  we  see  that  labor  applied 
to  a  product  of  the  land  has  created 
wealth.  Now  let  us  continue. 

"Another  kind  of  labor  was  then  used 
upon  the  tree  and  this  kind  of  labor  was 
not  productive  labor,  or  labor  which 
alters  the  form  of  natural  raw  material, 
making  it  to  be  artificial  raw  material, 
but  it  was  distributive  labor,  or  labor 
which  increases  the  worth  of  an  object  by 
distributing,  carrying  or  conveying  it 
from  a  place  at  which  it  is  of  no  value,  or 
of  small  value,  to  another  place  at  which 
it  is  desired  and  where  it  becomes  of 
value,  or  of  greater  value.  The  trunk 
was  conveyed  by  the  labor  of  railroaders 
on  a  flat  car;  the  brakesmen  put  on  and 
off  the  brakes;  the  conductors  superin- 
tended the  condition  and  direction  of  the 
cars  and  the  engineer,  assisted  by  his 
fireman,  directed  and  controlled  the  loco- 
motive, and  as  a  result  of  their  distribu- 
tive labor  the  tree  was  eventually  brought 
to  some  saw-mills  where  other  productive 
labor,  that  of  the  sawyers,  increased  its 


What  the  Socialist  Said  75 

value  by  putting  more  labor  into  it,  by 
sawing  it  up  into  planks.  Again  the  labor 
of  turners,  varnishers,  polishers  and  car- 
penters was  applied  to  the  planks  and 
eventually  you  had  this  article  of  use, 
this  object  of  wealth — a  platform.  It  is 
simply  so  much  natural  raw  material 
upon  which  the  strength,  skill  and  inge- 
nuity of  lumbermen,  teamsters,  rail- 
roaders, sawyers,  joiners,  carpenters, 
turners  and  polishers  has  been  exerted, 
and  as  a  result  you  have  an  article  of  use. 
Now,  apply  the  same  reasoning  to  any 
object  of  use  or  luxury  you  see  around 
you  or  that  you  use  or  wear — to  your 
clothes,  to  your  tobacco,  to  your  shoes  or 
to  those  houses  yonder — in  fact,  to  every 
artificial  thing  you  can  see.  All,  all,  is 
the  product  of  useful  human  labor. 

"Yes,  so  far  so  good,  you  may  bejhink- 
ing;  but  something  else  entered  into  the 
formation  of  this  wealth.  What  about 
your  third  factor,  capital?  Could  the 
sawyer  work  without  the  saw-mill,  the 
railroader  distribute  without  the  railroad, 


76  God's  Children 

and  are  not  saw-mills  and  railroads  cap- 
ital, and  therefore  is  not  the  capitalist 
who  owns  this  capital  entitled  to  some 
return  for  allowing  the  laborer  the  use  of 
it  in  order  to  create  value  and  produce 
wealth?  Stop  there,  my  friend.  The 
mere  ownership  in  the  first  place  does 
not  mean  right  to  possession,  for  the 
thief  owns  the  watch  he  has  stolen,  but 
nobody  will  claim  that  he  has  a  right  to 
it.  The  only  ethical  rights  to  ownership 
are  production  and  use.  Now,  did  the 
capitalist  produce  or  make  the  capital 
which  he  owns  or  does  he  use  it?  Right 
here  let  me  make  two  other  definitions. 

"  Henry  Fawcett,  in  his  Manual  of  Polit- 
ical Economy,  Book  I,  Chapter  II,  stated 
that:  'Capital  represents  all  that  has 
been  set  aside  from  the  results  of  past 
labor  to  assist  present  or  future  produc- 
tion.' 

"David  Ricardo,  in  his  Principles  of 
Political  Economy,  Chapter  V,  defines 
capital  thus:  'Capital  is  that  part  of  the 
wealth  of  a  country  which  is  employed  in 


What  the  Socialist  Said  77 

production,  and  consists  of  food,  clothing, 
tools,  raw  materials,  machinery,  etc., 
necessary  to  give  effect  to  labor.'  Now, 
we  have  just  seen  how  wealth,  i.e.,  all 
articles  of  use  or  luxury,  is  made.  Any 
article  of  use  or  luxury  which  is  being 
consumed  is  wealth,  according  to  political 
economists,  but  if  it  is  not  being  used  or 
consumed,  but  is  applied  to  making  more, 
then  it  is  classed  as  capital.  The  clothing 
you  are  wearing  out,  that  is,  consuming, 
is  wealth,  but  if  instead  of  consuming  but 
one  suit,  you  had  some  thousands  of  suits 
for  sale  in  a  store,  then  those  suits  would 
be  your  capital,  because  you  would  be 
using  them  to  make  more  wealth  in  the 
form  of  profits  upon  them.  If  capital 
then  is  simply  a  portion  of  wealth  used  to 
create  more  wealth,  does  it  not  logically 
follow  that  the  portion,  capital,  must  have 
been  produced  by  those  who  made  the 
whole,  wealth,  by  the  labor  of  the 
workers  and  that  it  cannot  have  been 
produced  by  the  capitalists  who  never 
produce  anything  but  an  infernal  disturb- 


78  God '  s  Children 

ance  on  the  stock  exchange?  But  capital, 
as  capital  alone,  cangpt  produce  anything. 
Labor  must  be  applied  in  conjunction 
with  it,  or  in  "plain  words  labor  must  use 
capital  in  order  to  create  more  wealth. 
Therefore,  as  labor  makes  and  uses  cap- 
ital, to  the  makers  and  the  users  should 
belong  the  more  wealth  which  is  the 
result,  and  not  to  a  non-making,  non- 
using  class  who  do  nothing  but  control. 
Permit  me,  however,  to  elaborate  this 
argument  in  order  to  make  it  plain,  and 
point  out  to  you  not  merely  what  capital 
is,  but  also  what  it  is  not.  Money  is  not 
capital;  it  is  a  mere  means  of  exchange, 
a  measure  of  value.  Stocks  and  shares 
in  large  commercial  concerns  are  not 
capital,  although  often  taken  for  it. 
Money,  stocks  and  shares  are  the  mere 
means  of  controlling  capital,  not  capital 
itself;  they  are  to  capital  what  title  deeds 
and  leases  are  to  land,  and  as  you  cannot 
build  a  house  upon  a  piece  of  paper  upon 
which  a  lease  is  drawn  up,  nor  cultivate 
potatoes  upon  a  freehold  document  made 


What  the  Socialist  Said  79 

of  parchment,  neither  can  you,  by 
merely  signing  and  exchanging  pieces  of 
paper  produce  wealth,  nor  construct 
railroads,  but  you  may  wreck  them  some- 
times though.  These  papers  and  docu- 
ments are  mere  means  of  controlling 
capital  but  are  not  capital  itself  any  more 
than  the  string  which  is  used  to  hold  the 
dog  is  the  dog. 

"Let  us  consider  some  very  plain  and 
obvious  manifestation  of  capital — say  a 
railroad.  Now,  a  railroad  consists  of 
many  articles  of  use  and  a  few  of  luxury, 
in  the  form  of  ties,  rails,  bridges,  culverts, 
embankments,  locomotives,  cars,  seats, 
cushions,  etc.,  used  to  create  more  wealth 
in  the  form  of  fares  charged  to  passen- 
gers, for  freight  dues  charged  for  carrying 
goods.  Let  us  take  this  form  of  capital — 
a  railroad  —  and  go  into  its  economic 
analysis.  How  are  the  ties,  rails  and 
locomotives  made?  By  the  strength  and 
skill  of  the  worker,  i.e.,  by  useful  design- 
ing labor  applied  to  so  much  raw  material 
in  the  same  way  as  this  platform  was 


8o  God's  Children 

made  from  the  tree.  How  were  the 
bridges  constructed,  the  embankment 
raised,  the  tunnels  bored?  By  useful  and 
intellectual  labor  exercised  upon  the  land, 
and  the  result  of  all  is  the  capital — the 
railroad. 

"Yet,  strange  to  say,  although  the 
workers  made  it,  the  non-workers  own  it. 
How  is  this  possible?  Is  a  capitalist  a 
huge  octopus-like  monster  with  his  head 
thrust  into  the  middle  of  the  stock 
exchange  shouting  there,  and  with  thou- 
sands of  other  heads  and  arms  at  the  ends 
of  long  tentacles  working,  superintending 
and  designing  in  thousands  of  different 
mines,  factories,  workshops,  railroad  sta- 
tions, offices  and  studies?  If  such  a 
mighty  monster  took  the  products  of 
the  strength  and  skill  of  the  many,  I 
should  certainly  consider  him  entitled  to 
them. 

"But  the  laborers  not  only  make  cap- 
ital, they  use  it  or  work  with  it  and  by  it 
to  make  more  wealth,  not  for  themselves, 
who  have  made  and  produced  the  capital, 


What  the  Socialist  Said  81 

but  for  idlers  who  have  not  made  and 
who  do  not  use  but  simply  own  and 
control  both  capital  and  laborers. 

"Even  after  the  railroad,  the  cars,  the 
locomotives,  etc.,  are  made,  they  do  not 
bring  in  fares  unless  certain  men — brakes- 
men, porters,  conductors,  engineers  and 
laborers — work  on  and  in  them  in  order  to 
produce  wealth  in  the  form  of  fares  and 
freight  dues,  and  even  these  could  not 
work  long  were  it  not  for  the  labor  of  track 
layers,  section  hands  and  laborers  who 
continually  keep  cars  and  road  in  good 
repair.  Now,  did  you  ever  see  a  capital- 
ist working  in  the  manner  above  men- 
tioned? To  return  to  the  simile  of  the 
octopus.  Is  a  capitalist  a  monster  with 
one  pair  of  eyes  gazing  upon  an  indecent 
dance  at  the  Moulin  Rouge  in  Paris  and 
with  myriads  of  other  eyes  watching  his 
far-reaching  railroad  in  all  its  length  of 
miles  and  its  hundreds  of  stations?  Has 
he  one  pair  of  hands  used  by  him  to  lift 
champagne  glasses  and  dainty  viands  at 
some  luxurious  banquet  and  myriads  of 


82  God '  s  Children 

other  tentacle-like  hands  busy  in  thou- 
sands of  other  places  collecting  fares,  put- 
ting on  brakes,  firing  up  engines  or  guiding 
by  the  lever  the  rate  of  their  speed?  If 
such  an  abnormal  monster  had  been 
placed  by  nature  above  me  and  it  took 
millions  of  dollars  worth  of  value  to  my 
one,  I  should  certainly  be  compelled  to 
admit  its  right  to  them.  But  it  not  being 
so,  it  becomes  manifestly  unjust  that  one 
non-producer  should  take  from  the  toil 
and  ingenuity  of  many  useful  workers  the 
result  of  their  labor. 

"The  points  which  I  have  been  trying 
to  make  plain  are  these:  That  land  is 
nature's  free  gift  to  humanity  collectively, 
that  the  community  is  injured  when  a  few 
monopolize  land;  therefore,  for  the  good 
of  the  community  at  large,  land  should 
become  the  collective  property  of  the 
people  and  should  be  nationalized. 

"That  capital  is  made  by  labor,  that 
capital  is  afterward  worked  by  labor, 
therefore,  capital  should  be  owned  by  the 
laborers  who  make  and  use  it. 


What  the  Socialist  Said  83 

"That  labor,  being  the  fructifying  force 
which  is  essential  for  the  creation  of 
wealth,  should  be  employed  by  a  national 
government  and  should  not  remain,  as  at 
present,  dependent  upon  non-workers  and 
monopolists  for  its  employment. 

"That  all  wealth  is  produced  by  useful 
human  labor  applied  to  land  or  the 
products  of  the  land,  and  that  the  pro- 
ducers should  enjoy  the  full  benefit  of 
their  products,  and  hence  that  all  able- 
bodied  adults  should  labor  and  should 
receive  the  full  product  of  their  labor. 

"Upon  this  method  of  reasoning  the 
socialists  base  their  demands,  which  are 
as  follows:  The  nationalization  of  land 
and  capital  and  the  government  employ- 
ment of  all  labor,  said  government  to 
regulate,  control  and  superintend  labor, 
and  manipulate  the  use  of  capital,  and 
decide  the  distribution  of  all  wealth. 
These  demands  may  sound  startling,  rev- 
olutionary and  desperate  to  those  who 
hear  them  for  the  first  time,  but  society 
is  desperately  diseased  and  desperate 


84  God's  Children 

diseases  need  desperate  remedies.  Con- 
sider the  affluence  and  wealth  of  the 
plutocratic  few;  consider  the  penury  and 
want  of  the  industrious  many;  listen  to  the 
groans  of  the  workless,  homeless  toilers, 
the  sighs  of  down-trodden  and  defiled 
women;  heed,  oh,  heed,  ye  fathers,  the 
tears  of  the  helpless  little  children  and 
arise  in  the  majesty  of  your  numbers  and 
assert  your  right  to  live  as  men  should 
live.  Rebel  against  the  gradual  death  of 
capitalistic  slavery.  You  have  but  to  will 
it  and  you  may  be  free,  for  you,  the 
workers,  are  in  the  majority  and  the  will 
of  the  majority  is  greater  than  all 
laws  and  institutions  and  is  in  fact  the 
only  valid  government.  Strive  with 
strength,  intelligence  and  energy  to 
abolish  these  mighty  evils  which  press 
you  down.  Strive  by  peaceable  and  con- 
stitutional means,  by  speaking,  organ- 
izing, agitating  and  voting,  but  if  these 
means  are  rendered  of  no  avail  by  the 
wiles  of  capitalist  possessors,  then  let 
them  take  the  terrible  alternative.  Go 

• 


What  the  Socialist  Said  85 

to  them  with  words  of  peace,  persuasion 
and  reasoning,  but  if  these  methods  be  of 
no  avail  forget  not  that  sacred  spirit  of 
revolt  which  has  so  often  in  the  past 
crushed  despotism  and  dethroned  oppres- 
sion. 

"Turn  your  faces  toward  the  capitalists 
and  address  to  them  the  words  of  the 
poet,  William  Morris: 

"  'Wish  ye  peace?  Then  be  ye  with  us;  let  our 

hope  be  your  desire. 

Will  ye  war?  Then  shall  ye  perish  like  the 
dry  wood  in  the  fire.'  " 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  POLITICAL  ECONOMIST  HAS  NO  SOUL 

Hell  is  a  city  much  like  London — 
A  populous  and  a  smoky  city. 
There  are  all  sorts  of  people  undone, 
And  there  is  little  or  no  fun  done ; 
Small  justice  shown,  and  still  less  pity. 

There  is  great  talk  of  Revolution — 
And  a  great  chance  of  despotism ; 
Marching  soldiers — camps—  confusion 
Politics — meetings — rage — delusion 
Gin — suicide — and  Methodism. 

And  this  is  Hell — and  in  this  smother 
Are  all  damnable  and  damned ; 
Each  one  damning,  damns  the  other ; 
They  are  damned  by  one  another, 
By  none  other  are  they  damned. 

—Peter  Bell  the  Third:  P.  B.  SHELLEY. 

You  have  a  sly  equivocating  vein  that  suits  me  not. 
—  The  Cenci:  P.  B.  SHELLEY. 

.     .    The  soul  that  he  got  from  God  he  has  bartered 

clean  away ; 

We  have  threshed  a  stock  of  print  and  book,  and  win- 
nowed a  chattering  wind ; 

And  many  a  soul  wherefrom  he  stole,  but  his  we  cannot 
find. 

86 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   87 

We  have  handled  him  and  dandled  him,  we  have  seared 

him  to  the  bone ; 
And  sure  if  tooth  and  nail  show  truth  he  has  no  soul  of 

his  own. 

—  Tomlmson:  RUDYARD  KIPLING. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse 
the  socialist  descended  the  platform  and 

•  Mercury  approached  him  and  remarked: 
"Young  man,  you  have  given  me  much 
valuable  information.  You  have  explained 

'•  to  me  what  was  before  incomprehensible; 
you  have  boldly  uttered  simple  truths 
where  others  have  told  me  willful  or 
ignorant  lies.  I  came  from  heaven  to 
this  earth  which  God  has  plentifully 

^  endowed  with  an  ample  sufficiency  for 
the  welfare  of  all  his  children,  and  yet  I 
saw  selfish  luxury  cheek  by  jowl  with 

^abject  want.  I  saw  palaces  large  enough 
ito  house  twenty  families  occupied  by  but 
«one  at  the  West  End;  I  saw  structures, 
grand,  massive  and  roomy  in  the  city,  yet 
they  were  completely  empty,  and  here  in 
these  foul  purlieus  I  see  hovels  barely 
large  enough  to  accommodate  two  fami- 
lies overcrowded  by  twenty  and  thirty. 


88  God's  Children 

Where  there  should  be  nothing  but  songs 
and  sounds  of  peace  and  happiness  I  hear 
the  blare  of  the  trumpets  of  war  and  the 
sound  of  the  marching  tread  of  thousands 
of  warriors  about  to  slaughter  at  the 
bidding  of  their  government  thousands  of 
their  fellow  men;  I  hear  the  sad  plaints  of 
little  hungry  children,  the  sighs  of  fallen 
and  debauched  women  and  the  groans  of 
despairing  fathers  and  mothers,  hopeless, 
soulless  toilers.  Some  have  blasphemed 
God's  name  saying  that  he  wills  things 
so;  others  have  given  other  and  trivial 
causes,  but  you  alone  by  a  few  simple 
truths  have  made  plain  to  me  that  the 
one  great  cause  of  all  this  is  avarice, 
greed  and  monopoly,  and  that  the  one 
great  cure  is  intelligence,  equality  and 
cooperation.  Your  socialism,  I  believe 
in  as  the  only  hope  of  God's  Children;  and 
I,  as  a  messenger  from  heaven,  give  in  the 
name  of  God  his  sanction  to  it  and 
tender  heaven's  thanks  to  such  as  you 
who  fearlessly  dare  to  advocate  such 
noble  truths." 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   89 

The  socialist  speaker  looked  with  an 
air  of  surprised  amusement  upon  the 
aristocratic  dandy  who  called  himself  a 
messenger  from  heaven  and  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  heaven  of  his  inter- 
locutor was  Belgravia,  his  god,  pleasure 
and  that  he  had  been  worshiping  that 
divinity  in  the  form  of  a  champagne 
bottle  so  earnestly  that  morning  that  he 
had  drifted  accidentally  into  Whitechapel, 
the  terra  incognita  of  his  class,  and  was 
now  speaking  under  some  kindly  emotion 
inspired  by  wine  which  had  obliterated 
his  class  prejudices.  With  that  polite 
urbanity  which  he  had  acquired  from 
dealing  with  men  and  audiences  the 
socialist  replied: 

"You  say  you  come  from  heaven, 
my  friend,  but  I  am  afraid  you  will  find 
your  way  back  thither  difficult.  It  is  a 
long  way  from  Whitechapel  to  heaven. 
You  say  that  you  agree  with  what  we 
teach,  but  you  say  so  in  such  an  emotional 
manner  that  I  fear  your  feelings  speak 
and  not  your  reason.  We  socialists  place 


QO  God's  Children 

little  confidence  in  such  sudden  conver- 
sions; the  Salvation  Army  further  down 
the  street  do  that  sort  of  thing.  We  do 
not  wish  to  convert  you;  we  would  rather 
convince  you.  We  do  not  appeal  to  sen- 
timent, but  to  sense.  Weigh  well  what  I 
have  said,  then  hear  what  those  who 
oppose  us  say,  draw  your  own  conclusion, 
and  if  convinced  of  the  truth,  become  a 
socialist  and  work  with  us  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  condition  of  mankind.  Con- 
versions are  the  result  of  some  passing 
emotion  and  are  not  lasting,  but  when  a 
man's  reason  convinces  him  he  must  act 
up  to  the  truth  or  live  a  lie." 

"Who  are  your  opponents?"  asked 
Mercury. 

"They  are,"  replied  the  socialist,  "the 
professors  and  teachers  of  political  econ- 
omy." 

"What  is  political  economy?"  asked 
Mercury. 

"It  is  called  the  dismal  science,"  replied 
the  socialist.  "It  deals  with  commerce, 
shops,  factories,  trade,  rent,  interest  and 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   91 

profit,  and  it  teaches  that  the  object  God 
had  in  view  when  he  put  people  on  this 
earth  was  that  they  should  produce 
wealth  for  a  few  idlers." 

"How  singular,"  exclaimed  Mercury. 
"Where  could  I  find  one  of  its  expo- 
nents?" 

"Go  and  interview  Ananias  Average, 
Professor  of  Economics  in  Assford  Uni- 
versity, who  resides  at  449  Westbourne 
Crescent,  Regent's  Park,"  replied  the 
socialist. 

With  an  affectionate  embrace  and 
much  gratitude  Mercury  took  leave  of 
the  socialist.  "It  may  be,"  mused  the 
heavenly  messenger,  "that  this  socialist  is 
wrong,  nevertheless  he  is  so  anxious  that 
I  should  study  the  matter  for  myself  that 
I  think  he  is  not.  The  religious  speaker 
blamed  God  for  the  misery  of  his  chil- 
dren; he  of  course  I  knew  to  be  wrong. 
The  orator  who  condemned  strong  drink 
almost  convinced  me,  but  I  found  him  to 
be  mistaken  when  I  heard  the  socialist 
speaker,  and  may  not  the  socialist  prove 


Q2  God's  Children 

to  be  incorrect  when  I  hear  from  those 
who  differ  from  him?  I  will  see  the 
political  economist  to-morrow/' 

Black  night  had  spread  itself  over 
Whitechapel  and  the  faint  gleam  of  the 
street  lamps  and  more  gorgeous  efful- 
gence of  the  brilliantly-lighted  gin 
palaces  served  but  to  render  the  vices 
and  shames  of  the  metropolitan  Inferno 
more  repulsive  and  terrible.  The  little 
pallid-featured  child,  whose  father  she 
would  tell  you  in  her  own  little  slangy 
patois  was  "on  the  booze/'  sat  shivering 
upon  the  doorstep  of  a  squalid  home;  the 
haggard-visaged  mendicant  beseeched  in 
piteous  tones  from  indifferent  passers  for 
that  which  society  denied  to  him;  the 
modern  Magdalenes  wearing  their  forced 
artificial  smiles  upon  painted  lips,  but 
showing  in  the  depths  of  their  sunken 
eyes  the  unutterable  woes  of  degraded 
womanhood,  jostled,  beseeched  and 
enticed,  and  the  thieves  and  pickpockets 
swaggered  along,  some  seeking  with 
keen-eyed  alertness  for  prey,  others 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   93 

revelling  in  flashy  new  clothes  and  tipsy 
hilarity  over  some  successful  coup.  The 
heavenly  messenger  shrank  from  some, 
shuddered  at  others,  but  in  the  large- 
souled  kindliness  of  his  celestial  compas- 
sion, wept  in  commiseration  for  all. 
Black  midnight  fell  over  all  this  wretch- 
edness. Chaste  mother  Nature  veiled 
her  pure  eyes,  the  stars,  with  clouds,  as 
though  she  would  not  contemplate  such 
scenes. 

Mercury  stopped  before  a  large  build- 
ing which  was  capped  with  a  towering 
conically-shaped  spire  the  point  of  which 
was  concealed  in  the  mist  overhead.  The 
high  Gothic  door  was  open  and  Mercury 
entered  and  stood  in  a  richly-decorated 
building  filled  with  seats,  at  the  farther 
end  of  which  was  what  looked  like  a  table 
covered  with  a  linen  cloth  upon  which 
were  candles,  flowers  and  some  massive 
golden  ornaments.  An  oppressive  and 
chilly  solitude  and  stillness  filled  the  vast 
place.  Mercury  started,  for  somebody 
touched  him  upon  the  shoulder,  and  asked 


94  God' s  Children 

him  what  he  was  doing  there.  The 
heavenly  messenger  started  and  looked 
with  that  expression  of  disdain  which 
even  the  most  considerate  cannot  conceal 
when  confronted  with  the  coarse  and 
vulgar. 

The  features  of  the  other  were  fat, 
coarse  and  pig-like,  his  brow  ape-like  and 
angular,  his  neck,  broad  and  fat  as  that  of 
a  Yorkshire  bull,  was  tightly  encircled  by 
a  thin  band  of  white  starched  linen  and 
his  capacious  paunch  was  covered  by  a 
long  tightly-buttoned  frock-coat. 

Mercury  replied,  "I  came  in  here  out  of 
curiosity  because  this  house  is  so  large 
and  stately  when  compared  with  its  sur- 
rounding hovels.  What  is  this  place?" 

"It  is  the  house  of  God,"  replied  the 
other. 

"It  is  truly  singular  that  God  should 
have  an  empty  house  while  many  of  his 
children  are  homeless,"  rejoined  Mercury. 

The  fat  minister,  ignoring  this  last 
remark,  went  on  to  ask:  "As  you  appear 
by  clothing  and  manners  to  be  a  gentle- 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   95 

man,  I  presume  you  are  a  stranger  in  this 
locality  and  came  hither,  I  suppose, 
slumming,  that  is,  studying  the  condition 
of  the  poor." 

"Yes,  I  did,"  replied  Mercury,  with 
meaning  emphasis. 

"Would  you  like  to  see  our  church?  It 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  costly  in 
the  city,  even  if  it  is  in  Whitechapel,  and 
we  have  a  very  grand  oil  painting  here 
which  people  often  come  miles  to  see." 
He  then  proceeded  to  draw  attention  to 
the  many  attractions  of  his  church,  point- 
ing them  out  where  the  vague  half  light 
allowed,  them  to  be  seen. 

At  length  they  stopped  before  a  vivid 
and  life-like  oil  painting  representing 
Christ  sitting  in  the  garden  on  Mt.  Olivet 
and  weeping  over  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 
It  was  a  wonderful  picture.  The  artist 
had  conveyed  into  the  face  of  the  Christ- 
God  an  ineffable  look  of  divine  sadness. 

"Who  was  that  beautiful  sad-faced 
man?"  asked  Mercury. 

"That  is  God,"  replied  the  minister. 


g6  God's  Children 

"Why  does  he  weep?" 

"On  account  of  the  vices  of  his  chil- 
dren," rejoined  the  parson. 

"He  looks  poor,"  remarked  Mercury. 
"He  is  bare-footed  and  bare-headed;  He 
need  not  have  gone  so.  A  god  should 
be  great  and  strong." 

"Yes,  he  was  strong  in  his  humility, 
great  in  his  suffering  and  poverty," 
replied  the  minister,  "for,"  he  added, 
unctiously  turning  up  his  eyes  and  joining 
his  hands  together  over  his  fat  paunch, 
"he  knew  not  where  to  lay  his  head." 

Just  then  a  sound  of  somebody  moving 
and  heaving  a  deep  sigh  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  parson  to  a  bench  in  a 
dark  corner  of  the  church.  Quickly  he 
rushed  in  the  direction  of  the  sounds  and 
perceived  a  wretched  outcast  sleeping  on 
the  bench. 

"What  are  you  doing  there,  you 
dirty  vagabond?"  angrily  demanded  the 
parson. 

"I  found  the  door  open  and  came  in 
to  rest,"  timidly  replied  the  pallid-faced 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   97 

outcast,  "for  I  am  homeless  and  have  no 
place  to  lay  my  head." 

As  he  uttered  these  words  a  look  of 
suffering,  so  strangely  similar  to  that  on 
the  face  of  the  picture  overspread  his 
countenance  that  Mercury  was  struck  by 
the  coincidence  of  the  words  and  the  look. 

The  parson,  too  brutal  to  notice  either, 
loudly  exclaimed:  "Get  out  you  filthy 
blackguard,"  and,  seizing  the  unfortunate 
by  the  collar,  began  to  push  him  rudely 
toward  the  door. 

Mercury  looked  on  in  profound  disgust. 

"What  lying  hypocrisy,"  he  cried,  "to 
build  palaces  for  a  God  who  knew  not 
where  to  lay  his  head  and  who  never 
now  sleeps  in  them,  and  to  hurl  out  like  a 
mangy  dog  one  of  God's  Children  who 
stands  in  need  of  that  which  their  God 
sought  in  vain  when  he  was  on  earth." 

With  a  bound  he  reached  the  fat 
parson  just  as  the  latter  was  about  to 
push  the  outcast  down  the  steps;  Mer- 
cury fixed  his  strong  white  fingers  in  the 
flabby  throat  of  the  hypocrite  and  dashed 


98  God 's  Children 

him  through  the  doorway  to  the  pave- 
ment. 

The  parson  immediately  began  to 
wield  the  weapon  of  priests  and  women — 
his  tongue: 

"Police!  Police!  Murder!"  he  cried, 
and  when  a  policeman  appeared,  Mer- 
cury not  being  in  sight,  the  minister 
vented  his  wrath  by  having  the  homeless 
outcast  arrested, 

Down  the  street  they  went,  the  fat, 
excited  parson,  a  crowd  of  night  owls 
attracted  by  his  cries,  and  a  tall  strong 
policeman  at  the  head,  dragging  along  a 
ragged,  pallid-faced,  sad-eyed  workman 
whose  head  was  bowed  in  shame  and  fear 
upon  his  breast. 

In  the  silent  solitude  of  the  rich  church, 
where  none  could  see,  the  beautiful 
Christ-God  shed  real  tears.  He  was 
weeping  for  the  vices  of  modern  Jeru- 
salem. 

Next  morning,  Mercury,  anxious  to 
discover  the  truth  and  to  find  out  whether 
there  could  be  any  reason  why  so  much 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul   99 

suffering  should  prevail  among  men, 
went  to  see  the  political  economist. 

Upon  reaching  the  comfortable  resi- 
dence of  the  professor,  which  was  situated 
in  Westbourne  Crescent,  Regent's  Park, 
Mercury  was  met  at  the  door  by  a  servant 
who  demanded  his  business.  Mercury 
tendered  his  card  which  was  carried  up  to 
the  study. 

The  professor  read  with  a  puzzled  look 
the  name  "Mercury  Deomissit,"  inscribed 
upon  the  card. 

"Hum,"  he  remarked,  "looks  classical. 
Probably  one  of  those  German  professors 
who  still  cling  to  the  mediaeval  custom  of 
Latinizing  their  names.  Show  him  up." 

Mercury  entered,  and  saluting  the  pro- 
fessor of  the  dismal  science,  remarked: 

"Sir,  I  have  been  referred  to  you  as 
one  of  the  greatest  professors  of  political 
economy  and  would  like,  if  you  have  time 
and  convenience,  to  consult  you  concern- 
ing that  science  and  the  precepts  it  lays 
down  as  governing  modern  society.  I 
have  traveled  a  great  distance  to  investi- 


ioo  God '  s  Children 

gate  the  condition  of  men  here  and  was 
sent  only  yesterday  to  you  by  a  socialist 
who  proposed  a  very  revolutionary,  but 
apparently  very  necessary  remedy,  for 
the  terrible  want  and  suffering  which  at 
present  afflicts  the  majority  of  the  people." 

"A  socialist,"  exclaimed  the  professor, 
looking  in  surprise  upon  his  aristocratic- 
looking  visitor.  "You  have  been  pursu- 
ing your  inquiries  in  a  strange  and 
unreliable  quarter.  Those  socialists  are 
ignorant  and  discontented  men  who 
assemble  in  the  market-place  and  who,  in 
their  illogical  denunciations  of  the  right- 
ful possessors  of  wealth,  are  guided 
merely  by  malice  and  envy." 

"Envy,"  rejoined  Mercury,  "is  unlawful 
when  entertained  for  that  which  is  not 
rightfully  ours,  yet  it  seems  to  me  that 
those  working  people  are  entitled  by  all 
the  canons  of  justice  to  the  wealth  which 
their  labor  creates.  What  you  term 
illogical  denunciation  appeared  to  me  to 
be  a  very  logical  demand,  for  the  socialist 
proved  that  wealth  and  capital  are  both 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul  101 

produced  by  the  labor  of  the  working 
class,  and  land  I  know  to  be  God's  free 
gift  to  all  his  children.  You  speak  of 
rightful  possessors.  What  right,  may  I 
ask  of  you,  have  the  rich  to  that  which 
they  own?" 

"  Well,"  replied  the  professor,  "as  far  as 
the  land  is  concerned,  the  right  of  the 
present  owners  consists  in  the  fact  that 
they  and  their  ancestors  have  held  it, 
some  of  them,  from  the  time  when  Wil- 
liam of  Normandy  came  and  conquered 
this  country  in  1066,  and  such  a  lengthy 
occupation  certainly  confers  a  right." 

"But  if  the  followers  of  the  conqueror 
stole  the  land  nine  centuries  ago,  that 
does  not  entitle  the  present  holders  to  it. 
The  length  of  time  stolen  property  is 
kept  does  not  lessen  but  rather  aggravates 
the  heinousness  of  the  theft;  particularly 
is  this  so  in  the  case  of  land,  the  monop- 
oly of  which  operates  so  much  to  the 
detriment  of  the  mass  of  the  people. 
What  are  their  claims  to  the  possession 
of  capital?" 


IO2  God's  Children 

"By  dint  of  thrift  and  economy  the 
present  holders  who  have  acquired  are 
certainly  entitled  to  their  property," 
replied  Ananias  Average. 

"Thrift  and  economy  are  terms  almost 
synonymous  with  saving,"  replied  Mer- 
cury, "and  I  fail  to  see  how  by  saving  a 
thing  you  can  increase  its  quantity;  and 
furthermore,  if  that  socialist  spoke  truly 
about  these  wealthy  ones  called  capital- 
ists, they  must  be  more  noted  for  extrav- 
agance and  luxury  than  for  the  qualities 
which  you  specify  as  distinguishing  them 
and  entitling  them  to  what  they  hold." 

"Capital  is  certainly  entitled  to  some 
return,"  tartly  remarked  the  economist. 

"Capital,  though,"  answered  the  visitor, 
"is  not  the  capitalist;  the  former  is  a 
means  of  production,  the  latter  the  man 
who  controls  it,  and  can  a  controller 
claim  a  greater  right  than  a  maker?" 

"Is  not  profit  the  wages  of  superintend- 
ence, and  interest  the  reward  of  risk?" 
questioned  the  professor. 

"To  say  that  risk  should  be  rewarded  is 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soitl  103 

to  encourage  gambling  and  taking  risks 
with  wealth  that  is  created  does  not 
create  more  wealth  in  the  aggregate," 
replied  Mercury.  "As  to  the  wages  of 
superintendence,"  he  continued,  "they 
who  usually  really  superintend  are  fore- 
men and  overseers,  and  their  reward  is 
wages  truly,  but  the  capitalist  does  not 
and  cannot  superintend  the  vast  concerns 
which  he  owns  filled  with  those  huge 
complicated  tools  called  machines  and  in 
which  the  operators  are  too  manifold, 
numerous  and  stupendous  to  be  superin- 
tended by  one  man.  It  is  simply  impos- 
sible under  such  conditions  for  one  man 
to  superintend  or  regulate,  and  when  you 
base  their  demand  for  their  dispropor- 
tionately large  incomes  upon  the  fulfil- 
ment of  an  unachievable  task  you  make 
it  plain  that  your  premises  are  too  ridicu- 
lous to  support  your  conclusion." 

"Sir!"  angrily  retorted  the  economist, 
"if  you  consider  my  opinion  ridiculous  I 
think  your  presence  undesirable.  Leave 
my  office  immediately!" 


IO4  God's  Children 

Mercury  turned  pale  with  contempt 
and  wrath.  "Leave!  yes,  but  you  shall 
leave  with  me.  I  have  seen  suffering  and 
vice  among  the  ignorant,  and  here  I  see 
lying  and  deceit  where  truth  should  be 
found.  I  met  in  Whitechapel  the  prosti- 
tutes of  their  bodies;  here  I  meet  a  man 
of  intelligence  who  prostitutes  that  which 
is  more  sacred,  his  reason." 

The  professor  sprang  from  his  seat  with 
a  threatening  gesture,  but  Mercury,  power- 
ful in  his  superhuman  strength,  towered 
above  him,  and  seizing  him  by  the  throat, 
threw  him  out  of  the  window.  With  a 
loud  shriek  the  professor  fell  three  stories 
to  the  pavement  and  ere  he  expired 
found  sufficient  time  to  inform  a  police- 
man that  he  had  been  thrown  from  his 
office  by  a  dangerous  and  violent  revolu- 
tionist. The  officer  dashed  upstairs,  but 
he  found  the  office  empty. 

Mercury  had  disappeared.  In  disgust 
he  had  left  the  earth.  He  could  laugh  at 
the  conceit  of  the  aristocrat  and  the 
ridiculous  credulity  of  the  religious 


A  Political  Economist  Has  No  Soul  105 

fanatic;  he  could  sympathize  with  the 
wretchedness  of  the  poor  and  even 
sorrow  for  the  vices  of  the  dissolute;  but 
he  could  not  tolerate  the  lies  and  hypoc- 
risy of  political  economy.  The  dismal 
science  was  too  much  even  for  his 
celestial  patience.  Upon  leaving  the 
earth  and  assuming  again  his  spirit,  Mer- 
cury soared  upward  but  he  did  not  go 
far.  His  spirit  hovered  in  vindictive  and 
terrible  rage  above  the  earth.  He  was 
waiting  for  the  soul  of  that  political 
economist.  But  he  waited  long  and  in 
vain  and  eventually  relinquished  his 
expectation  of  vengeance  with  regret. 
He  had  discovered  what  all  discrimin- 
ating children  of  earth  know  —  that  a 
political  economist  has  no  soul. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   WRATH    OF   GOD 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 
Solvet  saeclum  in  f avilla ; 
Teste  David  cum  Sibilla. 

— Dies  Irae;  OLD  CATHOLIC  HYMN 

Mercury  hurriedly  entered  the  heav- 
enly domain  in  such  deep  dejection  that 
many  of  its  denizens  turned  to  look  upon 
him  with  surprise.  His  face  usually  so 
calm  and  joyous,  bore  a  sad  and  pained 
expression,  and  his  brow  was  marked  with 
anguish  and  suffering.  God  looked  with 
genial  amusement  upon  the  downcast 
mien  of  his  volatile  messenger  and 
inquired  in  astonishment: 

"Why,  Mercury,  it  appears  that  your 
experiences  have  not  pleased  you." 

Mercury,  with  a  sigh,  replied: 

"Ah,  God,  your  poor  children  down  on 
that  earth  are  in  a  most  degraded  condi- 
tion. There  is  want,  misery  and  suffering 

106 


The  Wrath  of  God  107 

among  them;    they  are   debauched   and 
unclean;  they  war  and  kill  and  slaughter." 

"Mercury,"  replied  God,  in  a  gentle 
tone  of  reproof,  "I  fear  you  are  mistaken. 
Has  your  contact  with  those  lower  beings 
caused  you  to  forget  that  I  am  God  and 
that  God  does  not  make  mistakes? 
When  I  made  that  planet  I  placed  an 
ample  sufficiency  upon  it  to  support  the 
needs  of  all  my  children.  Why  then 
should  there  be  want  and  misery  there? 
For  every  male  I  produced  a  female. 
Why  then  should  there  be  vice  and 
uncleanness?  I  gave  to  my  children  the 
gift  of  reason  by  means  of  which  they 
might  discriminate,  arrange  and  settle 
peacefully  their  affairs.  Why  then  should 
they  war  like  thelower  brutes?" 

"You  may  have  made  well,  but  youv 
have  neglected  them  since,  and  among 
them  there  has  arisen  an  avaricious  and 
ambitious  few  who  have  appropriated  all 
the  wealth,  beauty  and  power,  leaving  to 
the  many  nothing  but  want,  hideousness 
and  servitude,"  replied  Mercury. 


1 08  God '  s  Children 

"That  is  strange,"  replied  God,  begin- 
ning to  be  interested.  'Tray,  Mercuryf 
give  me  your  experiences  in  detail." 

God  carelessly  reclined  upon  a  couch 
of  opalescent-colored  clouds  and  listened 
intently  while  his  messenger  related  what 
he  had  seen  and  heard. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  recital  God  was 
much  amused.  He  laughed  aloud  when 
Mercury  told  him  what  the  theologian 
said,  but  as  the  story  progressed  he 
became  first  serious,  then  sad  and  at 
length  angry. 

The  Great  Ruler  of  the  Universe  is 
seldom  angry  and  does  not  become  so 
from  trivial  causes,  but  when  he  does  his 
wrath  is  terrible  to  behold. 

A  heavy  ominous  silence  reigned 
throughout  his  golden  realm  and  his 
happy  and  smiling  companions  hurried 
from  his  presence  and  hid  their  faces. 
He  turned  to  Mercury,  who  stood  shud- 
dering in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty 
ire,  and  said: 

"Leave   me,  messenger,  I   will   myself 


The  Wrath  of  God  109 

look  and  listen  whether  what  you  tell  me 
of  is  true." 

God  leaned  his  head  upon  his  hand 
and  turned  his  eyes  in  the  direction  of 
the  earth.  By  a  slight  effort,  his  almighty 
mind  sweeping  through  intervening  space, 
he  contemplated  the  condition  of  his 
children. 

God  looked  and  he  saw  dainty  ladies 
with  pink-white  faces  and  sensual  lips 
sipping  rich  wines  and  casting  sensual 
looks  upon  the  richly-dressed  men  who 
drank  and  sang  and  smiled  with  them. 
He  saw  stern,  hard-faced  plutocrats 
frowning  from  club  windows  upon  the 
passing  multitude;  he  saw  luxury;  he 
saw  pride;  he  saw  war;  he  saw  lust, 
blood,  ambition  and  arrogance. 

God  looked  and  he^saw  the  pallid  wife 
of  the  workless  laborer  putting  a  cup  of 
cold  water  to  the  lips  of  her  starving 
child;  he  saw  her  squalid  hovel  and  her 
want-pinched  face;  he  saw  her  despair- 
ing husband  struggling  with  thousands  of 
others  as  sallow-faced  as  himself  at  the 


no  God's  Children 

dock-yard  gates  for  the  work  which 
would  provide  bread  for  his  wife  and 
little  ones,  and  God  saw  him  turn  away 
workless  and  desperate. 

God  looked  and  he  was  angry. 

God  listened  and  he  heard  soft  sensu- 
ous songs  of  pleasure;  he  heard  laughter, 
light  but  heartless;  he  heard  sneers  and 
contempt  expressed  for  the  poor  and 
lowly,  and  hatred  uttered  in  bitter  words 
by  the  wealth-insolvent  few  for  the 
suffering  and  toiling  many. 

God  listened.  He  heard  the  deafening 
roar  and  whirr  of  the  mighty  machinery 
in  thousands  of  factories,  but  rising  loudly 
and  plainly  above  it  the  cries  and  groans 
of  the  little  child-slaves  who  tended  the 
machines.  He  heard  the  unuttered 
prayer  of  woe  from  the  soul  of  the  fallen 
woman  compelled  to  sell  herself  in  order 
to  exist;  he  heard  the  desperate  blasphe- 
mous De  Profundis  hurled  at  heaven  by 
the  hopeless,  starving  wage-slave  and  he 
heard  it  in  magnanimous  forgiveness,  for 
he  is  a  merciful  God. 


The  Wrath  of  God 


God  listened  and  was  angry. 

His  broad,  smooth,  placid  brow  became 
furrowed  with  a  terrible  minatory  frown. 
He  arose,  and  his  lofty  stature,  thousands 
of  cubits  high,  threw  a  lengthy  shadow 
athwart  the  bright  and  peaceful  scene  of. 
heavenly  beauty.  His  eyes,  so  soft  and 
smiling,  flashed  like  two  blazing  beacons; 
his  mouth,  usually  wreathed  in  indulgent 
and  careless  smiles,  curved  down  at  the 
cornel's  as  does  that  of  the  monarch  of 
the  desert  when,  hungry,  he  seeks  his  prey 
in  the  Lybian  wilderness,  and  his  long 
flowing  locks,  which,  falling  about  his 
brow  and  shoulders  form  a  golden  frame 
for  his  beautiful  face  arose  and  curled 
around  his  head  like  the  serpent  curls 
of  ancient  Medusa.  Threateningly  he 
reached  forth  an  arm,  mighty  as  that  of  a 
giant,  graceful  as  that  of  a  Grecian 
athlete,  toward  the  earth  and  thus  he 
spoke  in  his  wrath: 

"Oh,  my  children,  misguided,  sinful, 
wretched  and  sad.  Oh,  my  children, 
avaricious,  arrogant  and  selfish.  Unto 


H2  God's  Children 

you  I  gave  plenty  and  of  it  you  have 
produced  poverty;  unto  you  I  gave  purity 
and  peace  and  you  have  made  impurity 
and  war;  unto  you  I  gave  reason  and  you 
have  abused  it  so  that  you  live  in  a  worse 
way  than  the  beasts  to  whom  I  gave  it 
not. 

"But  I  am  God  and  I  shall  so  will  it  in 
the  near  future  that  those  among  you 
who  live  in  idleness  and  work  not,  shall 
not  live  upon  the  blood  and  sweat  of  the 
many  who  toil.  For  I  will  encourage 
with  my  omnipotent  will  the  spread  of 
that  creed  of  hope  for  my  children  called 
'socialism'  and  the  desperate  many  shall 
arise  against  the  despoiling  few;  they 
shall  hurl  the  mighty  from  their  high 
places;  they  shall  despoil  the  despoilers 
and  take  unto  themselves  the  just  reward 
of  their  labor — the  wealth  of  the  earth. 

"And  then  when  in  the  place  of  want 
and  misery  there  shall  be  peace  and 
plenty;  when  in  the  place  of  sighs  of 
slaves  and  cries  of  starving  children  there 
shall  be  laughter,  song  and  joy  and  peace; 


The  Wrath  of  God  1 13 

when  equality  shall  succeed  despotism 
and  justice  supplant  partial  and  venal 
law;  when  men  shall  work  each  for  all, 
and  all  for  each,  then  will  you  not  blas- 
pheme my  name  when  you  call  yourselves 
GOD'S  CHILDREN. 


THE   END 


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duction. 

9.  American  Pauperism  and  the  Abolition    of 

Poverty.  By  Isador  Ladoff,  with  a  supple- 
ment, "Jesus  or  Mammon,"  by  J.  Felix. 
Cloth,  50  cents. 

A  study  of  the  last  United  States  census,  bringing 
out  in  bold  relief  the  social  contrasts  that  are  pur- 
posely left  obscure  in  the  official  documents.  An 
arsenal  of  facts  for  Socialist  writers  and  speakers. 

10.  Britain  for  the  British  (America  for  the 
Americans.)  By  Robert  Blatchford,  with 
American  Appendix  by  A.  M.  Simons. 
Cloth,  50  cents. 

A  popular  presentation  of  Socialism,  in  the  same 
charming  and  simple  style  as  the  author's  "Merrie 
England,"  but  giving  a  far  more  adequate  and  scien- 
tific account  of  the  subject. 


4  BOOKS   ON   SOCIALISM,   ETC. 

11.  Manifesto    of    the    Communist    Party.     By 

Karl  Marx  and  Frederick  Engels.  Author- 
ized English  Translation:  Edited  and  An- 
notated by  Frederick  Engels.  Also  in- 
cluded in  the  same  volume,  No  Compro- 
mise: No  Political  Trading.  By  Wilhelm 
Liebknecht.  Translated  by  A.  M.  Simons 
and  Marcus  Hitch.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

This  manifesto,  first  published  in  1848,  is  still 
recognized  the  world  over  as  the  clearest  statement 
of  the  principles  of  the  international  Socialist  party. 
It  has  been  translated  into  the  language  of  every 
country  where  capitalism  exists,  and  it  is  being 
circulated  more  rapidly  today  than  ever  before. 

12.  The    Positive    School    of    Criminology.     By 

Enrico  Ferri.  Translated  by  Ernest  Un- 
termann.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

The  science  of  criminology  has  been  revolutionized 
within  one  generation  by  the  Socialist  students  of 
Italy,  of  whom  Ferri  is  the  most  prominent  living 
representative.  This  book  is  indispensable  to  any  one 
desiring  reliable  information  on  the  modern  theory 
of  crime  and  its  treatment. 

13.  The  World's  Revolutions.     By  Ernest    Un- 

termann.     Cloth,  50  cents. 

A  study  of  the  economic  causes  of  the  great  revo- 
lutions of  the  world's  history  in  the  light  of  the 
Socialist  principle  of  historical  materialism. 

14.  The   Socialists,   Who   They   Are  and  What 

They  Seek  to  Accomplish.  By  John  Spar- 
go.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

Scientific  yet  readable  and  easy;  written  in  a  style 
that  the  man  in  the  street  will  understand  and  the 
man  in  the  university  will  admire.  Just  the  book 
to  start  a  new  reader. 

15.  Social  and  Philosophical  Studies.    By  Paul. 

Lafargue.  Translated  by  Charles  H.  Kerr. 
In  Preparation. 

This  book  will  contain  two  studies  entirely  new  to 
American  readers,  "Causes  of  Belief  in  God,"  and 


BOOKS   ON    SOCIALISM,   ETC.  5 

"The  Origin  of  Abstract  Ideas."  It  will  also  contain 
several  studies  reprinted  from  the  International  So- 
cialist Review.  Lafargue's  brilliant  style  makes  even 
the  most  abstract  subjects  delightful. 


LIBRARY  OF  SCIENCE  FOR  THE  WORKERS. 

Modern  International  Socialism  is  directly  re- 
lated to  modern  science.  It  is  in  a  sense  the 
evolution  theory  applied  to  the  facts  of  society. 
It,  therefore,  follows  that  for  a  full  understand- 
ing of  socialism  some  general  knowledge  of  the 
facts  of  modern  science  is  necessary. 

A  new  series  of  books  has  lately  appeared  in 
Germany  which  give  in  simple  and  popular  form 
complete  proofs  of  the  evolution  theory  along 
with  a  clear  account  of  the  latest  applications  of 
this  theory  in  the  various  fields  of  modern 
science.  We  have  arranged  to  translate  and  pub- 
lish some  of  the  best  of  these,  along  with  such 
original  works  in  the  same  line  as  are  available. 
They  are  uniform  in  size  with  the  Standard  So- 
cialist Series. 

1.  The  Evolution  of  Man.  By  Wilhelm 
Boelsche.  Translated  by  Ernest  Unter- 
mann.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

"The  Evolution  of  Man"  tells  in  full  detail,  in  a 
clear,  simple  style,  illustrated  by  pictures,  just  how 
the  descent  of  man  can  be  traced  back  through  mon- 
keys, marsupials,  amphibians,  fishes,  worms  and  lower 
forms  of  life,  down  to  the  animals  composed  each  of 
a  single  cell.  Moreover,  it  proves  that  there  is  no 
such  fixed  line  as  was  formerly  thought  to  exist 
between  the  organic  and  the  inorganic,  but  that  the 
same  life-force  molds  the  crystal  that  molds  the 
cell.  It  is  not  only  simple ;  it  is  up-to-date  and  gives 
the  latest  discoveries  in  science.  It  is  the  book  on 
the  subject. 


6  BOOKS   ON   SOCIALISM,   ETC. 

2.  Germs  of  Mind  in  Plants.    By  R.  H.  France. 

Translated  by  A.  M.  Simons.  Cloth,  il- 
lustrated, 50  cents. 

A  cardinal  point  in  the  philosophical  systems 
favored  by  the  ruling  classes  is  that  the  mind  of 
man  is  something  unique  in  the  universe,  governed  by 
laws  of  its  own  that  have  no  particular  connection 
with  physical  laws.  Modern  science  has  proved  that 
not  only  animals,  but  also  plants,  receive  impressions 
from  the  outside  world  and  use  the  data  thus  obtained 
to  modify  their  movements  for  their  own  advantage, 
exactly  as  human  beings  do.  These  facts  are  told  in 
this  book  in  so  charming  and  entertaining  a  style 
that  the  reader  is  carried  along  and  does  not  realize 
until  later  the  revolutionary  significance  of  the  facts. 

3.  The  End  of  the  World.    By  Dr.  M.  Wilhelm 

Meyer.  Translated  by  Margaret  Wagner. 
Cloth,  illustrated,  50  cents. 

This  book  answers  in  the  light  of  the  discovery  of 
modern  science  the  questions  frequently  asked  as  to 
the  probable  end  of  human  life  on  this  planet.  More- 
over, it  goes  a  step  further  in  making  clear  the  rela- 
tions of  man's  life  to  the  universe  life.  We  have 
already  seen  that  "mind"  is  but  another  form  of  "life." 
Dr.  Meyer  shows  that  not  only  animals  and  plants 
but  even  worlds  and  suns  have  their  birth,  growth, 
maturity,  reproduction,  decay  and  death,  and  that 
death  is  but  the  preparation  for  a  new  cycle  of  life. 

4.  Science  and  Revolution:    A  Historical  Study 

of  the  Evolution  of  the  Theory  of  Evolu- 
tion. By  Ernest  Untermann.  Cloth,  50 
cents. 

A  history  of  the  evolution  of  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, from  the  earliest  scientific  writings  that  have 
been  preserved,  those  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  author  shows  how  the 
ruling  classes,  living  on  the  labor  of  others,  have 
always  supported  some  form  of  theology  or  mysti- 
cism, while  the  working  classes  have  developed  the 
theory  of  evolution,  which  is  rounded  out  to  its 
logical  completion  by  the  work  of  Marx,  Engels  and 
Dietzgen.  The  author  frankly  recognizes  that  no 
writer  can  avoid  being  influenced  by  his  class  environ- 
ment, and  he  himself  speaks  distinctly  as  a  prole- 


BOOKS   ON    SOCIALISM,   ETC.  7 

tarian  and  a  Socialist.  "Science  and  Revolution"  is 
an  essential  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  proving  that 
conclusions  drawn  by  Socialists  from  the  facts  of 
science. 

5.  The  Triumph  of  Life.    By  Wilhelm  Boelsche. 

Translated  by  May  Wood  Simons.    Cloth, 
50  cents. 

The  German  critics  agree  that  this  book  Is  even 
more  interesting  than  "The  Evolution  of  Man,"  by 
the  same  author.  It  tells  of  the  struggle  of  life 
against  its  physical  environment,  and  introduces  a 
wealth  of  scientific  detail  charming  set  forth.  The 
German  original  contains  no  illustrations,  but  our 
edition  is  fully  illustrated  with  pictures  that  aid 
materially  in  an  understanding  of  the  text. 

6.  Life  and  Death,  a  Chapter  from  the  Science 

of  Life.     By   Dr.    E.   Teichmann.     Trans- 
lated by  A.  M.  Simons.    Cloth,  50  cents. 

A  study  of  how  life  begins  and  how  it  ends.  It 
does  not  duplicate  any  other  book  in  this  series,  but 
is  a  special  investigation  into  the  laws  which  govern 
the  reproduction  of  life.  It  also  deals  with  the 
methods  by  which  the  life  of  eaeh  separate  individual 
is  brought  to  an  end,  and  shows  that  in  an  over- 
whelming majority  of  cases  throughout  the  whole 
animal  kingdom  death  is  violent  rather  than  "nat- 
ural." Even  among  human  beings  a  really  "natural" 
death  is  rare.  The  author  suggests  that  with  im- 
proved conditions  of  living,  most  premature  deaths 
may  be  prevented,  and  that  in  that  event  the  fear 
of  death,  which  causes  so  much  of  the  misery  of  the 
world,  may  disappear.  . 

7.  The  Making  of  the  World.    By  Dr.  M.  Wil-j 

helm  Meyer.    Translated  by  Ernest  Unter- 
mann.    Cloth,  50  cents. 

This  is  a  companion  volume  to  "The  End  of  the 
World,"  and  traces  the  processes  through  which  new 
suns  and  new  worlds  come  into  being  to  take  the 
place  of  those  that  have  grown  old  and  died.  It  is 
an  essential  link  i  nthe  chain  of  evidence  proving  that 
the  human  mind  is  not  something  apart  from  nature 
but  only  another  manifestation  of  the  one  force  that 
pervades  all  "matter."  The  book  has  twenty-four 


8  BOOKS  ON  SOCIALISM,  ETC. 

Illustrations,  for  the  most  part  reproductions  of  tele- 
scopic photographs,  which  make  the  truth  of  the 
statements  in  the  book  evident  to  every  reader. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  LIBRARY  OF  SOCIAL 
SCIENCE. 

This  new  library,  the  first  volume  of  which  ap- 
peared in  January,  1906,  contains  in  substantial 
and  artistic  cloth  binding  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant works  on  socialism  and  kindred  subjects 
that  have  ever  been  offered  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. While  our  price  has  been  fixed  at  a  dol- 
lar a  volume,  most  of  the  books  in  the  library 
are  equal  to  the  sociological  books  sold  by  other 
publishers  at  from  $1.50  to  $2.00. 

1.  The  Changing  Order.  A  Study  of  Democ- 
racy. By  Oscar  Lovell  Triggs,  Ph.  D. 
Cloth,  $1.00. 

Dr.  Triggs  was  a  prominent  professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  but  he  taught  too  much  truth  for 
Standard  Oil,  and  is  no  longer  a  professor  in  the 
University  of  Chicago.  This  book  contains  some  of 
the  truth  that  was  too  revolutionary  for  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller's institution.  It  traces  the  inevitable  rise  of 
democracy  in  industry,  in  other  words,  of  a  working 
class  movement  that  will  take  industry  out  of  the 
control  of  capitalists.  It  also  studies  the  necessary 
effect  of  this  rising  democracy  on  literature  and  art, 
on  work  and  play,  on  education  and  religion. 

For  description  of  other  books  in  this  library, 
and  a  large  variety  of  other  Socialistic  literature, 
see  catalog ;  mailed  free  on  request.  Address 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  CO. 

264  East  Kinzie  Street 

CHICAGO 


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LIBRARY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

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All man,  J.  A277 

God's  children.       G6 


LIBRARY 

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DAVIS 


